SECURITY Awareness and the HUMAN Firewall

Five ways to protect your organization from disaster

By Jim Kandrac, President UCG Technologies, for IBM Systems Magazine

A midsize retailer's recent email phishing test revealed how susceptible companies can be to hackers. Employees received an email disguised as a threat of termination from their human resources department for accessing prohibited sites on the job. It included instructions to click a link in the message to see a list of sites they allegedly visited.

Over 48 percent of employees clicked on the link, despite the fact that the sender's email address was from an unknown source and the link clearly led to a destination outside the firewall. This may be an extreme example of how companies can fall prey to phishing, but it's not unusual. 

In my experience, between 20 and 45 percent of employees are deceived by email ploys. A single click to a malicious site can infect a user's computer with malware that compromises the entire corporate network. 


Many experts believe breaches are so common that the issue is no longer whether organizations will be attacked but when.

The average consolidated 

total cost of a data breach, 

according to a Ponemon Institute study.

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Then give us a call at 800.211.8798 to learn more about what UCG can do to protect YOUR organization from disaster.