Undoubtedly you’ve read by now about Sinclair’s computer network being hacked and held for ransom. The company reported that it was locked out of just about everything on its network. As one employee explained the situation, he had no email, phones, file video or graphics. The newscasts that did air were essentially “talking head radio” – looking like a throwback to the “old days.”
Could it happen to you? You betcha! And if it hasn’t happened to you, it’s probably because of equal parts of good computer networking practice and alert computer users and a large serving of “they haven’t gotten to me yet.” But in time, they will!
Implementing good computer networking practice is the easy part. All it takes is a little money and adding some protection features that make your computer network operation a bit more inconvenient for users. Yes, the more secure your network the more your users will face inconvenience, like frequent password changes, limited access privileges tailored to each user, and inconvenient additional steps to verify users’ identity and to access secured data.
The biggest threat to any station’s computer network is its users. And the biggest threat here is the “phish” email. Email that looks exactly like a legitimate email but contains a “payload” that compromises your network when the user clicks on a link, a picture, or other “click-bait.” A cute cat picture can kill your network!
Particularly in fast-moving news and sales operations, stopping to carefully inspect an email often isn’t part of the daily routine. You’re regularly expecting email from the home office, from clients, and from news sources, so when one appears you just click away! Bingo – you may threaten your network.
Even if your station’s staff is fully vigilant, outside providers who have access to your network can introduce malware. If you allow access to your network by a voice guy, by an ad agency, or by employees or contractors working from home (and aren’t we all at least in part) you’ve opened up another avenue for malware to strike. Your network administrator should sharply limit privileges from all users to just the ones they need, and all uncontrolled outside connections should only be able to deposit their contents in a safe place. Segment or segregate the operations network from the sales network from the engineering network from the – well, you get the idea.
Never, never allow users on a fairly unsecure network (like nearly all peer-to-peer local area networks) to use their computers with “administrator” rights. Users should have “user” rights – everything they need to do their work, but absolutely nothing beyond. And really limit access from “brought in from home” computers!
We’ve just touched the surface. You wouldn’t leave your keys in your car – don’t leave the keys to your network where anyone can access, modify, or delete anything they shouldn’t.
A bit of inconvenient security now can save a huge amount of dollar loss later! Pay a little for good computer network security now or pay mightily for not having it later! Just ask the folks at Sinclair Broadcast Group!
