Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 06 | Page 52

CIO OPINION 2. Ransomware can and will take advantage In recent years, we have seen a rise in the number of ransomware attacks occurring across the globe, causing a predicted loss of US$5 billion last year. WannaCry is known as one of the worst attacks in history, with millions of computers affected worldwide, including many belonging to the NHS. Running XP was one of the reasons that so many computers were vulnerable to this attack, as well as multiple others in recent years. But why? Without the most recent security updates that newer operating systems receive on a 52 INTELLIGENTCIO regular basis, older machines are left without the level of cyber defences that are required to prevent attacks such as WannaCry or NotPetya having a devastating impact. 3. GDPR will only exacerbate the problems The new GDPR regulation means that any organisation that holds the data of EU citizens has to comply with the requirements of this new regulation. This involves being able to provide all of the data being held about any customer at any time, as well as being able to prove that such data is being stored securely. “ HAVING SUCH A LARGE NUMBER OF COMPUTERS WITHOUT UP-TO- DATE SECURITY IS A MAJOR CONCERN. www.intelligentcio.com