Pictured above: Encription Director Tony McDowell

Most companies go to great lengths to protect their premises and the contents held inside, utilising a variety of tools including CCTV, intruder alarms, access control and fire detection systems to ensure the security of their businesses. But how much attention do these companies pay to their IT security?

Sadly, not enough if regular stories are anything to go by. For example, American retail group TJX which owns the UK discount fashion chain TK Maxx was forced to admit, a year or more ago, that illegal hackers had penetrated their IT systems and stolen credit card details from almost 46 million customers and millions of pounds worth of consumers' money.

At the same time, Virgin Media became a victim of a criminal activity known as phishing after emails were sent to customers from a bogus company purporting to be Virgin Media, asking them to confirm their account and PIN details - details that could then be sold on and used fraudulently. These are just a couple of the businesses that have been dealt a nasty blow by a growing army of cyber criminals working across the globe.

As well as stealing customers' bank details, these criminals can also bring a business to its knees in other ways, including defacing or changing the content of a company's website. They can also hijack it - redirecting visitors trying to access that site and preventing them from viewing it, or they can bombard the site with mass messages which slows down or totally disrupts the server. 

While some hackers set out to deliberately damage a company, its credibility and reputation, others do it out of sheer curiosity such as Gary McKinnon who is accused of causing £375,000 worth of damage after allegedly hacking into hundreds of machines belonging to the Pentagon, the US army, the air force and NASA, which were not properly secured. Gary from north London claims he had simply been searching for evidence of UFO activity. Others do it just to prove that they can, without any real consideration of the potential consequences.  

Whatever their motivation, Worcester-based IT security specialist Encription was set up in attempt to fight back by waging war against those who put organisations and businesses at risk by illegally penetrating their IT systems. The company employs a team of ethical hackers (all working to strict BS standards) who, at the request of businesses, highlight and fix weaknesses in their website, effectively preventing illegal hackers from gaining unauthorised access.

Director Tony McDowell explains just how vulnerable websites are: "Estimates suggest that there are around 100,000 hackers operating worldwide so it is foolish to think your business isn't at risk.

"With media stories highlighting the dangers of cyber crime, most large companies are quickly wising up to web crime and taking steps to prevent it, so illegal hackers have now shifted their focus to smaller businesses whose sites are more likely to be unprotected. Despite this threat, many Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are still failing to secure their sites, with damaging, and sometimes disastrous consequences.

Think about it… If NASA and the US Military have fallen prey to attack, you can imagine how easy it is to break into the website of a small company with few, if any, safeguards in place. 

"It's quite alarming just how susceptible many websites are," Tony continues. "In many cases when we've been asked to assess the security of our clients' websites, we've been able crack passwords and easily gain access to all manner of sensitive information within a matter of minutes. While we appreciate that the main concern of many SMEs is sustaining their business, and they have to take into account budgetary constraints, we are also aware that failing to recognise and deal with the threat of cyber crime could be a costly oversight. 

"They may think that spending money on IT security, when they've never been attacked, is unnecessary, but we know with certainty that the cost of recovery from an attack, if they can recover, will be far greater than the cost of prevention."

Encription works and co-operates with a number of organisations including local government, solicitors, accountants, and building societies who have all put their trust in the company to protect their website. Depending on the size of the organisation, this can cost from as little as £150 per quarter. Websites are checked daily to ensure that hackers are kept at bay and antivirus software is also checked to protect systems from the risk of attack.