Children in Jersey could be compromising corporate security by illegally sharing wi-fi passwords.
Security experts are warning businesses to change wifi passwords more regularly to prevent unauthorised users accessing their networks.
Logicalis has concerns a group of youngsters could be compromising the security of island businesses by sharing private wifi passwords with an online community which could also give users the inside track to Local Access Networks (LANs), opening up the risk outsiders can see what LAN users are doing, giving unauthorised access and compromising security.
Ricky Magalhaes, Head of Offshore Security at Logicalis, said: “There is a group of young people in Jersey who take private passwords of businesses, organisations, and private homes, and share them online. Young people have a greater incentive to do this because they don’t always have data or 4G and so wifi is their main way to access the internet.”
“While this is not only illegal, it puts the youngsters into a grey area where hacking could be the next step. There is a fine line between testing the limits, and going down the path of cyber-crime and it wouldn’t take a lot for some of these youngsters to cross that line.”
“The amount of people who step over from playing computer games into darker activities is quite small, perhaps 1%, but we think there are potentially about 25 youngsters in Jersey in this position.”
As part of his role monitoring and maintaining security for many local and international organisations, Ricky alerts clients about unusual activity such as this, helping prevent security breaches developing.
According to the Kroll annual Global Risk & Fraud Report 2017 – a survey of businesses around the world – 85% of executives reported at least one cyber incident and two thirds reported security incidents over the past year.
Ricky said: “Security awareness is a huge aspect of preventing cybercrime. Thanks to greater awareness, we’re starting to see a decrease in people in companies we work with clicking fake links or responding to phishing attacks, but as cyber criminals continue to devise new attacks, cybercrime continues to rise. It’s like an ocean, you don’t really know how deep it is, or what is lurking beneath. All we know, is that you don’t want to leave yourself exposed or at some point, something is likely to bite you.”
Logicalis is one of the Channel Islands’ largest providers of managed IT services and security solutions, offering clients a comprehensive service managing, maintaining, and monitoring IT systems, data, and security.
