Cybersecurity Week with Welsford Consulting: Introduction

While many were celebrating the fourth of July weekend, CDK Global was hard at work trying to bring dealership management system software back online after more than a two week long outage at car dealerships throughout the United States. Other functionalities of CDK’s software are still without a timeline for restoration, as the company reels from what appears to be a ransomware cyber attack. Car dealerships were without crucial scheduling or payment management software, and had to return, in many cases, to pen and paper bookkeeping and scheduling. 

Cyber attacks are a major threat to business continuity, and the CDK Global cyber attack highlights the economic impacts they can have - with auto sales predicted to be lagging behind normal numbers for the month of June. Moreover, an alarming trend is the tendency of hackers to target elements of critical infrastructure that are easy to overlook in business continuity planning: car dealerships, police departments, school districts, small utility facilities, and many others have been victims of recent ransomware cyberattacks. 

Even if your business isn’t a part of ‘critical infrastructure’, it is important to think about the role that cybersecurity plays in your business operations. Even if your product has nothing to do with software or hardware, it's often easy to think that the tools we use will never fail and never fall victim to a cyberattack. 

This week is cybersecurity week at Welsford Consulting LLC. We are sharing a topic relating to cybersecurity and business continuity and resilience planning every day including topics like cybersecurity in medical devices, cybersecurity training, risk mitigation methods, and much more! Follow along and share your thoughts in the comments! And, as always, Welsford Consulting LLC is here to help your business with emergency and risk management and business continuity planning.