The White House warns the threat of Russian cyber attacks has never been greater. Companies have been urged to boost their cyber defenses, but should you do the same? Seven’s Kevin Ozebek investigates.
The invasion of Ukraine has stalled. With Russian troops failing to take the country with conventional weapons, the fear now is the Kremlin could turn to cyber warfare against the West.
President Joe Biden: “They have a very sophisticated cyber capability.”
Washington is warning American companies to be on high alert for cyber attacks from Russia.
Kevin Ozebek: “If Russia really wanted to do a large scale cyber attack on America, do they have the capability to do this?”
Yuda Sayon, President of CyVent: “Oh yes.”
Kevin Ozebek: “And how much damage could they do?”
Yuda Sayon: “Very much.”
Yuda Sayon is the president of CyVent. The Miami company helps other companies boost their cyber defenses.
This is Yuda’s advice to clients right now.
Yuda Sayon: “Think about upgrading the defenses you have because the game is changing. You can’t fall asleep.”
Yuda says there’s no need to panic.
But since the attack on Ukraine, he says there has already been a noticeable increase in activity from Russian hackers, and he’s not the only one urging clients to listen to the White House warning.
Kevin Ozebek: “How good is Russia at infiltrating computer systems and networks?”
Silka Gonzalez,founder of ERMProtect: “They’re very good.”
Silka Gonzalez founded ERMProtect.
The Coral Gables company helps secure servers and IT systems for hundreds of companies, hospitals and local governments.
Kevin Ozebek: “Are your clients worried right now, given the geopolitical climate?”
Silka Gonzalez: “Everybody is worried.”
Cyber security is so important now, Miami-Dade county tells 7investigates it continues to “update the cyber security systems as new intelligence becomes available.”
Broward County tells us it considers “the protection of its systems one of its highest priorities.”
Silka Gonzalez: “We have to do our national duty. We have to try to improve the level of security that we have in organizations from government agencies to the private sector.”
But what about us as individuals? We all have computers, tablets and phones in our homes.
Silka Gonzalez: “It’s time for us to put some additional level of controls on security in the devices we use in our daily lives.”
Both Silka and Yuda say we should install or update protection software on our devices like anti-malware, and they recommend we change passwords at least every few months.
Silka Gonzalez: “Security is not a one-time thing.”
And the more complicated the password, the better.
A four number password like this can be hacked instantly, but it would take a hacker 400 years to crack an 11 character password that looks like this.
Yuda Sayon: “It becomes unhackable.”
So our cyber security here at home is more important than ever as this war rages on in Ukraine.
CONTACT 7INVESTIGATES:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
7Investigates@wsvn.com
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