INSIGHTS for Financial Institutions Winter 2015 | Page 6

What can companies do to prevent and
detect a cyber security breach before it
happens? You have to be far more cognizant
of the potential risk that is involved with the use
of technology, and you’ve got to understand
that risk and put the appropriate steps in place
to prevent yourself from being vulnerable.

Cybersecurity:
How to be Proactive

Anthony Munns, an IT audit and security
partner at Brown Smith Wallace, has more
than 20 years of experience with information
technology and security, and he has watched
the issue of cyber threats grow over the years.
He knows the extent to which companies can
be affected by cyberattacks. He also knows
what they can do to get ahead of threats.

of reputation, loss of business and the threat of
sanctions being applied to the company.
How have cyber threats become more
advanced in recent years? Pretty well
everybody is connected, and it is easier for the
people who are trying to break into systems
to find targets. What’s evolved is the type of
people that are doing the targeting now has
changed. You’ve got a couple of major new
players out there in terms of organized crime.
They are not just after the value of financial
information, but also the value of PII and
medical information because they can use that
data to generate money as well. And you’ve
got the state-sponsored attacks – the Chinese
intellectual property attacks, for example, that
are going on.

How do cybersecurity breaches affect
companies? Organizations are seeing the