Paulius Petretis, leading cyber security expert reveals how the IoT can turna company’s computers into zombies that can perform malicious tasks without the awareness of the owners.

 Vilnius, Lithuania – January 08, 2018 – Paulius Petretis, CEO of VORAS Consulting posted a new article on the company website entitled “When The Internet of Things (IoT) Turns Your Business Into A Zombie” in which Mr. Petretis cautions owners to be aware of the threat before deploying connected devices.

Petretis writes, “It may sound like the theme of the next Hollywood horror film. But, the fact is,” he says, “your business could have already become a Zombie without your knowledge.”

“You may wonder what exactly is a zombie?” says Petretis. He provides a lengthy definition from Wikipedia writing, “According to Wikipedia, “In computer science, a zombie computer is a computer connected to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, computer virus or trojan horse and can be used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under remote direction. Botnets of zombie computers are often used to spread e-mail spam and launch denial-of-service attacks. Most owners of zombie computers are unaware that their system is being used in this way. Because the owner tends to be unaware, these computers are metaphorically compared to zombies. A coordinated DDoS attack by multiple botnet machines also resembles a zombie horde attack. Many computer users are unaware that their computer is infected with bots.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet)

 According to Petretis, “Having multiple interconnected devices is becoming more and more popular in homes and businesses throughout the world.” He continues adding, “It’s an exciting idea with a long list of seemingly desirable benefits. However, few people consider what could go wrong until something goes wrong.” Petretis provides an example. “For instance, back in the fall of 2016, there was a big attack on an Internet service provider in which a bunch of IoT devices became a botnet and made much of the Internet unavailable.”

The entire article can be read at https://voras-consulting.com/when-the-internet-of-things-iot-turns-your-business-into-a-zombie/

Paulius Petretis

Paulius Petretis is an Information security expert, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM®), Certified Information System Auditor (CISA®), Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT(CGEIT®) and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC®), Guest speaker at various conferences and seminars, Trainer at information security related training courses.

According to the annual survey initiated by the Info Security Europe, a whopping 93% of large organizations and 76% of small businesses had at least a single information security breach in 2011. Only 18% of the organizations affected by the infringements related to data protection laws had a consistent and effective contingency plan in place. According to Paulius, information is not something static – it evolves and mutates every day. It is the ecosystem of every business and if a single cell fails, it can bring down the entire business.

Therefore ensuring a consistent and up-to-date information protection policy must be the priority for all businesses – no matter how big or small they are. As it might be unrealistic to believe that any young or experienced entrepreneur can be the jack of all trades, the really smart decision is to rely on specialists who dedicate their professional lives to getting to know everything there is to know about protecting important business information.

With more than 16 years of experience in helping people, small businesses, and government organizations to protect their business secrets, Paulius believes that information security must help businesses achieve goals but not vice versa.

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