When your organisation suffers a data breach, the damage is more than lost data or costs to restore a system. Reputational damage can result in significant customer churn.

How do data breaches impact customer churn?

In IBM and The Ponemon Institute’s research report on data breaches in Australia, the organisations outlined the exact breakdown of breach costs.

On average, a data breach cost businesses $139 per compromised file. That breaks down to $60 in technical costs, and $79 to indirect costs like customer churn. That’s an average of 56 per cent of data breach costs coming through issues of customer retention.

Some sectors are more susceptible to this than others. Financial services and technology companies recorded higher than average churn after a data breach, while hospitality and retail are among those with more limited churn impacts.

At its core, this is an issue of trust. If your organisation deals in personal or private information, particularly financial data, there is an expectation that your company will be able to keep it secure. When it fails to do this, it fails at the core of its business. That is perhaps why churn in those sectors is so much higher than in retail or hospitality, where data security is not a core theme.

Lost records mean lost trust, which in turn means lost business. But how can you go about minimising this churn?

How to minimise the business impacts of a data breach

In trend terms, the churn-related impacts of a data breach are on the decline. IBM and Ponemon’s research noted a 5.3 per cent drop in these costs over 2017, particularly among companies that had a lower technical cost per record.

One of the keys to this could be brand management. Your response to a data breach shouldn’t just be in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme – it should be part of a wider strategy to regain the trust of your customer base.

1. Future-proofing and transparency

Consider Facebook’s response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal – one of the most reputationally damaging events in history. Beyond repairing the immediate harm, the company completely overhauled its privacy settings and communicated those changes to users clearly. Well, relatively clearly. The company’s stock continued to fall after the event, but this is a prime example of future-proofing in a transparent manner, of demonstrating a commitment to safety and security in the eyes of your customers.

2. Implement best practice early

Data breaches will, to a certain degree, always have an element of embarrassment to them. However, if your company can demonstrate to customers that it has a strong history of best-practice data security, this may go a long way towards minimising churn.

As an example of this done wrong, look no further than the Australian government. Early 2018 saw the leak of confidential written documents that were stored in a cabinet that was sold in a second-hand store. Regular audits of your information storage and best-practice rules on digitisation are a must at the very least.

Use people you trust

In many cases, businesses simply won’t have the in-house expertise required to implement proper data security strategies. And that’s OK! The team at Over the Wire are network specialists – local experts who will partner with you to understand exactly what your business needs.

It’s a surefire way of tightening up security, demonstrating to customers that you take handling their information seriously, and mitigating the churn that results from a data breach. Don’t forget to download and implement our white paper, 6 Steps to Improve Your Business Cyber Security here.

Act early, act in good faith and act smart. Get in touch with the Over the Wire team to minimise risks today.

The post What Impact Does a Data Breach Have on Your Customer Base? appeared first on Over the Wire.

It’s an issue that every organisation needs to put on their data security agenda – has yours begun the process?

What is router compromise, and how does it work?

Router compromise is a fairly sophisticated form of data breach. Malicious entities conduct automated scans of routers to identify hardware that is vulnerable to an attack. This enables an adversary to extract configuration files, from which point they may be able to control or manipulate any devices that connect to your network, as well as the Internet connection itself.

In most cases so far, cyber attacks on routers have focused on those with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) that is exposed to the Internet. This is a default setting, usually established during the setup of a network. While many organisations turn SNMP off after this process is complete, many more have left it open, creating risk of compromise. The ACSC has noted that router switches with Cisco Smart Install exposed to the Internet are also susceptible to router scanning and hacking.

How can you identify router compromise?

If your organisation’s router has this exposure to attacks, there are some straightforward checks that network administrators can take immediately. You should check network logs for:

• Unexpected SNMP queries; or queries of unknown origin.
• Command outputs or network configurations that have come from outside sources – particularly through Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP).
• Configurations that apply to GRE tunnels you would not expect changes to.

If any of these red flags emerge, it may be time to conduct a thorough assessment of the threat, in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme guidelines from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

How can you prevent router compromise?

The first step in prevention is the simplest – if your router has SNMP which is exposed to the Internet, disable it. If you require read/write capabilities with your SNMP, ensure it cannot connect with unauthorised or untrusted third parties. Alternatively, you can upgrade your SNMP to version 3 and adjust all of the community strings to an appropriate setting.

Similarly, for Cisco router users, if you do not require Cisco Smart Install to be active, disable it. You can also begin using Access Control Lists (ACL), which limit the access SNMP has to network configurations. Finally, you can configure your anti-spoofing protocols to drop any packets at the edge of your network which come from unauthorised sources.

The ACSC is also proactively scanning Australian IP address ranges, looking for vulnerable or compromised routers.

Mitigate the impacts of router scanning today

If your organisation suffers a router compromise-related attack, the costs can be far-reaching. Beyond the money spent eradicating the threat and hardening/patching your systems, significant data breaches require comprehensive follow-up action with both the OAIC and any affected third parties.

Hardware may need to be replaced, staff upskilled, and consumer relations or company reputation may suffer irreparable damage if an attack threatens an individual’s safety.

Cyber criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated, with router scanning just one example of new ways your systems can be breached. To stay on the cutting edge of data security, it’s critical you work with partners who can provide around-the-clock service, proactively anticipate threats and shut down risks before they spread.

To learn more about router vulnerability and other cyber risk areas, our 24 page eBook, IT Managers: Set your Network Defences to Stunning, is a great resource with tips you can use to identify, contain and prevent cyber security threats. You can download it here.

That’s the difference Over the Wire will make. Contact the team today to find out more.

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This claim, made by Gizmodo Australia, is on the back of an in depth analysis conducted by ITNews, details of which are available here. This report gives an interesting insight into the deployment and adoption of NBN services in different regions, and the activation rates in each.

But does this actually mean fibre to the node (FttN) is more popular than fibre to the premises (FttP)? On face value this could be the takeaway, however the claim does not take into account important factors such as the availability of providers supplying services, the adoption life cycle inherent with any new product, and consumer choice.

While the number of suppliers ready and able to deliver NBN services in the first round of NBN regions, with FttP, weren’t nearly as comprehensive as what there is today, this lack of accessibility isn’t the only important factor to consider when looking at this data. As with all products, a natural adoption life cycle will take place, with Innovators and Early Adopters making a small, but meaningful portion of the market; it’s these ‘guinea pigs’ that give the majority of consumers the confidence in the new product to adopt it themselves, or learn from someone else’s mistakes.

Another consideration is that measuring popularity is a factor of choice, which isn’t something that consumers have here; the options are to adopt whichever form of NBN is available in the area, or switch to or maintain existing connectivity not impacted by the decommissioning of PSTN phone lines.

While the final take-away from the analysis is up to interpretation, one good thing is clear; we’ve finally moved away from measuring “premises passed” to actual adoption rates – not only a step in the right direction towards accountability, but giving the public access to real and meaningful statistics about our nation’s ongoing NBN saga.

To see if NBN is appropriate for your business, or if you will be impacted by the decommissioning of PSTN lines, contact an Over the Wire representative or call us on 1300 689 689 today.

Media enquiries: Chris Jacko

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In today’s market, an increasing reliance on cloud based technology solutions and the Internet in general, means that many companies struggle to get a large enough data connection at an affordable price. A 20Mbps service in metro areas could currently cost anything from $500 up to $1000 per month, depending on the provider. As a contrast to this, OTW Fibre Select is providing 100M Unlimited Internet, delivered on a fibre tail, at less than $500 per month. Additional speed options are also available, up to 400Mbps.

Managing Director of Over the Wire, Michael Omeros, comments “OTW Fibre Select represents a step-change in the corporate data network space. This new product will allow us to provide our clients with a significant increase in bandwidth at a fraction of the price they would currently be paying. At Over the Wire, our primary goal is to connect our clients to the technology and services they need to operate most effectively. OTW Fibre Select will further enable us to do this by offering data connectivity speeds at pricing that easily competes with existing technologies, and we expect to see a significant uptake from those businesses that fall within these select locations”.

In a time where requirements for reliable digital communication is constantly increasing, investing in larger quantities of bandwidth at such a low price will also allow businesses room to grow. Omeros adds, “By future-proofing their IT and communication services with OTW Fibre Select, businesses can easily converge their voice and data networks as well as look to cloud services to improve business agility and profitability. Significant cost savings can be made here as well, so OTW Fibre Select can be the catalyst for savings on a client’s data communications, voice and IT spend. In addition, since NBNCo has concentrated on locations outside of the CBD areas, this new product is all about offering the NBN experience and benefits sooner.”

Similar to Over the Wire’s suite of connectivity solutions, OTW Fibre Select can be used for both voice and data services and is available as an Internet Only Tail or a Private IP Link.

The post Over the Wire Releases New Fibre Products appeared first on Over the Wire.

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Over the last couple of years however, there has been a marked pickup in native IPv6 use.  Some of this has been driven by events such as World IPv6 Launch where large service providers and content providers permanently enabled IPv6 connectivity as a native form of access for clients.  IPv6 traffic is now doubling every year, and a number of the largest ISP’s worldwide are working hard on their IPv6 rollouts, progressively enabling clients who connect to them.  As some of these very large networks enable IPv6, we will see huge leaps in native IPv6 use.

If current trends continue, ~50% of the worlds Internet traffic should be IPv6 within a reasonably short 5 years.

Australia, at this point in time, is seriously lagging the rest of the world when it comes to uptake rates.  According to Google, 2.25% of all requests to their infrastructure utilise IPv6, however when looking at requests from Australia only, the percentage drops to 0.41%. The infographic below breaks this down in greater detail.

Over the Wire has seen a similar disinterest in IPv6 from our corporate customer base, despite our network having been IPv6 enabled (dual stack) for a number of years.  It seems that most IT Managers are completely ignoring the problem of dwindling IP addresses, and are essentially prioritising other projects over investigating and deploying IPv6.  Unfortunately, with large parts of the developing world unable to receive new IPv4 allocations either now or in the near future, over time there may be parts of the Internet that those with IPv4 only will simply not be able to communicate with.

For those that have not yet investigated IPv6, there is a moderately steep learning curve and any implementation should be well planned like any other large IT project.  Additionally, IT support systems must be upgraded to deal with the new addressing scheme (eg monitoring systems, asset management systems, security appliances, DNS servers, etc).

Now is the right time to consider how you plan on helping your organisation transition to IPv6 as there can be little doubt that those who start early will be better placed to handle serious IPv4 depletion issues.  Enabling IPv6 on any corporate network should not be taken as a trivial task, and will need to be dealt with as a project much like that which faced many in the industry during 1998 and 1999 with the “Y2K” efforts.

Should you be interested in obtaining an IPv6 allocation, Over The Wire will happily provide you with an address block allocation to enable you to start your migration, and we can also enable your connection to us for IPv6.  If you have any questions about how to go about planning your own IPv6 journey, give us a call… but at the very least please do your own research into the world of IPv6 and start thinking about its deployment in your environment today.

The post Why It’s Time to Migrate to IPv6 appeared first on Over the Wire.