Data Protection Day: OTRS shares tips on how to protect against cyberattacks

Cupertino, January 22, 2018 – Annual Data Protection Day, which takes place on January 28, is becoming increasingly important as a result of recent hacker attacks.

Threats from cyberattacks are on the rise worldwide / More than half of IT managers show concern according to survey

Cupertino, January 22, 2018 – Annual Data Protection Day, which takes place on January 28, is becoming increasingly important as a result of recent hacker attacks. This month, the private data of hundreds of German politicians and celebrities was published on the Internet. In the United States, the Starwood hotel chain hack resulted in the breach of over 500 million customer records. These are just two among countless examples of ongoing cybercrime.

Data Privacy Day was initially initiated by the Council of Europe in 2006. In 2008, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) began to spearhead the initiative in the United States and throughout North America. The aim of the day is to raise data protection awareness worldwide.

According to a recent survey conducted by OTRS Group among IT directors and executives, more than a third (34 percent) of respondents in the United States and Canada are very worried about cybercrime with another 29 percent categorizing themselves as worried. Frighteningly, only 34 percent of IT leaders stated that they were very prepared for security incidents, but another 35 percent did classify themselves as prepared.

“Unfortunately, there is no way to 100 percent protect against cyberattacks, but multi-level security practices with clearly defined processes, technical preparation, training and rapid reaction reduces the risk,” said Jens Bothe, Director Global Consulting at OTRS Group. “The fight against cybercrime is always the joint responsibility of business, government and digital users.”

As an official NCSA Data Privacy Day Champion, OTRS Group has compiled the following important tips for companies to help minimize the risk and impact of cyberattacks:

Ensure smooth processes.

Accept the fact that there are cyber threats and take time to investigate all security-related processes in the enterprise. Everyone involved needs to know what to do when worst comes to worst as well as who to involve and what the next steps are. Document these processes and workflows – both to defend against threats and to respond to attacks. Define your processes now to save valuable time later: The shorter an attack lasts, the less damage can be done.

Take the necessary technical precautions.

Even seemingly small technical precautions can help to prevent attacks. Install firewalls, antivirus systems, encryption tools, security updates and intrusion detection systems. If you don’t have the expertise, get a consultant to help you identify and fix vulnerabilities.

Provide regular training.

Involve all stakeholders and keep them regularly informed of possible incidents and technical precautions. All employees need to know how important maintaining processes is to preventing hackers from accessing your network and causing chaos.

Respond quickly and safely in an emergency.

When the alarm sounds, set your emergency scenario in motion as soon as possible. A system like STORM powered by OTRS simplifies this. The communication system has integrated security-specific processes and can be individually adapted to the requirements of your company. This means that in the event of an attack, the incident is recorded immediately. Processes and notifications are started automatically. All steps take place in real time so that your team can minimize the danger as quickly as possible.

Further information about OTRS can be found here.

Read our blog here for more information on security-related topics.

About OTRS Group

OTRS Group is the manufacturer and world’s largest service provider for the OTRS Service Management Suite, awarded the SERVIEW CERTIFIED TOOL seal of approval. It offers enterprises of all sizes flexible solutions for process and communication management, in order to save time and money. Its customers include Lufthansa, Airbus, IBM, Porsche, Siemens, Bayer Pharma AG, BSI (German Federal Office for Information Security), Max Planck Institute, Toyota, Huawei, Hapag Lloyd and Banco do Brazil (Bank of Brazil). More than 170,000 companies worldwide use OTRS, including over 40 percent of the DAX 30 companies. OTRS is available in 38 languages. The company consists of OTRS AG and its six subsidiaries OTRS Inc. (USA), OTRS S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), OTRS ASIA Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), OTRS Asia Ltd. (Hong Kong), OTRS Do Brasil Soluções Ltda. (Brazil) and OTRS Magyarország Kft. (Hungary). OTRS AG is listed on the Basic Board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Further information can be found at: www.otrs.com.

Press Contact OTRS:
 
Address OTRS AG
Zimmermühlenweg 11
61440 Oberursel
Name Laura Bug
Phone +49 6172 681988-32
Email pr@otrs.com

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