Strong email security can’t stop human error at the Bank of Canada
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In February 2014 alone, employees at the bank of Canada were flooded with 25,000 phishing emails encouraging them to open a document containing malware that would infect their computer and steal banking credentials.
As the Financial Post reports, a good chunk of those emails were filtered out by the central bank’s security software, but some managed to land in employee inboxes. 33 people opened the document, but they were stopped by another security measure warning them that it could be infected with a virus. Nonetheless. five people, according to the article, still opened it.
In March 2016, the number of malicious emails exploded to 15 million, the consequences of which are still unknown. Since 2012, a known virus was installed in 17 separate cases.
The Post’s Claire Brownell writes that “anyone from foreign governments to organized crime could stand to gain from insider information about the central bank. The institution affects the entire economy by forming monetary policy and setting interest rates, information that could be very profitable to anyone with improper advance knowledge.”
Unsurprisingly, the Bank of Canada tried to explain that everything is okay. “Canadians can be assured that it has comprehensive cyber defences and business continuity plans in place,” a spokesperson told the Post.
But this revelation should deeply worry everyone.
No matter how strong the Bank’s email filters are, human error will always exist, and hackers are only getting more sophisticated in their infiltration techniques. It is only a matter of time until something catastrophic happens, and the chances are high when tens of millions of malware-ridden emails are received every month.
Email is inherently flawed. The only way to prevent a serious breech is for the Bank of Canada to move on to a new, more secure technology.
With Evizone Secure Communications (ESC), for example, The Bank of Canada would have the strongest electronics communication system commercially available. ESC provides full TRUE protection, something even the strongest cybersecurity measures cannot guarantee with traditional emails.
In addition, Evizone Communications Governance (ECG) protects against the problem of human error. ECG provides full accountability within an organization, protecting not only against external threats but internal ones as well.
This issue is not to be taken lightly. It is not just about someone’s old personal Hotmail account getting hacked. A breech at the Bank of Canada is a matter of national security. That it has already happened at least 17 times is a damning indictment and should make moving to a less archaic communications platform a top priority.
We cannot afford to wait until it’s too late to make a change.
About Evizone Ltd.
Evizone Ltd. is a revolutionary secure communications, encryption and compliance software and service provider based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Evizone offers innovative enterprise solutions in secure messaging (next generation beyond encrypted e mail) and encryption, encryption at rest, regulatory compliance, compliance archiving, WORM compliance, 17a-4 compliance, document life cycle management and communications governance and risk management. Evizone’s services protect organizations through best in class security, encryption, recipient controls, document life cycle management, discovery management, compliance management, compliance archiving, tamper proof WORM and 17a-4 compliance archiving and complete audit records against the enormous damage caused by communications breaches. Evizone’s patented technologies offer a level of security impossible to obtain with conventional or encrypted email and fast, powerful, user friendly compliance archiving. Evizone’s services are immediately available on multiple platforms and provide the strongest commercially available communications security and compliance archiving. You can follow Evizone on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Contact:
Tom Kott, HATLEY Strategy Advisors, 514.316.7082, tkott@hatleystrategies.com
