The Belgian Centre for Cyber Security (CCB) is advising all businesses and organisations in the country to activate two-factor authentication as soon as possible to strengthen their digital security.
Hospitals are regularly targeted by these attacks, with major consequences for patient care; last December, the city of Antwerp was a victim too. In the first three months of the year, 27 organisations fell victim to “ransomware” cyber attacks, according to the CCB.
This type of attack blocks user access to a system or steals sensitive information, pending payment of a ransom. Targeted organisations are then “no longer able to carry out their day-to-day operations, lose crucial information, suffer significant damage to their reputation and see their costs rise rapidly”, explains CCB Director General Miguel De Bruycker.
A survey by the Centre for Cyber Security shows that criminals often steal logins using computer viruses to launch their attacks. However, a large proportion of these online assaults can be prevented by using two- or multi-factor identification. This technique is based on the use of different identification mechanisms when employees connect remotely to the company network or to their professional email inbox.
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To implement this multi-step authentication, the CCB advises combining at least two identification elements, from among a known piece of data (such as a password), a piece of data that characterises the user (such as facial recognition) and a piece of data linked to an object they own (a smartphone, for example).
Multi-factor authentication is only the first step in protection, the centre explained. It must be followed by other measures such as rapid security updates and regular backups.
