What Would a Cyber Attack Look Like in the Real World?
In its latest cyber initiative, Hiscox collaborated with Brompton Bicycle, a British bike manufacturer to stage a ‘real world’ hack to simulate the effects of a cyber attack by constructing a complete clone of their east-London store, hiring look-a-like staff and stocking the shelves with counterfeit merchandise. Common hacking techniques such as ransomware and phishing were brought to life through a series of simulated offline attacks; the real store was boarded up, displaying a ransom note demanding Bitcoin in exchange for re-entry; genuine stock deliveries were diverted to the fake ‘3rompton’ store, highlighting the potential effects of a phishing scam; finally the real Brompton store was flooded with imitation customers overwhelming staff, simulating a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
“The frequency and severity of cyber attacks on UK businesses is alarming. Cyber criminals are swift, sophisticated and consider businesses of all shapes and sizes worthy targets so it’s vital that organisations are both aware of these risks and prepared to manage them. Businesses need to take ownership of their cyber security and put solid preventative measures in place. Unfortunately attacks will still get through and being prepared for those attacks is critical.” – Head of Cyber at Hiscox, James Brady.
“Our business is about our bike; the design, function and support we give to our customers over the life of the product. We have spent forty years developing the Brompton brand and continue to take risks to innovate and improve the design. When people copy us, with little understanding of the engineering and care behind the design, they are trying to fool our customers who may go on to buy a potentially dangerous product. We wanted to work with Hiscox to highlight these risks, as it is a serious issue and is not limited to the product but also to online cyber fraud, spam emails and viruses, that hurt businesses and their customers alike.” – CEO of Brompton Bicycle, Will Butler-Adams.
