The modern threat landscape is vast and unpredictable. No matter if you think you know enough about cybersecurity to protect your business, we bet that you don’t. It’s not just in the business world, either; individuals also struggle against cyber threats, and so too do IT administrators. Here are the most important tips you need to know about cyber security!
Data Breaches and Hacks Are Not Ideal
A data breach could cause a chain of catastrophic events. This could disrupt operations, damage your reputation, and lead to costly fines that can severely impact your budget.
The best thing you can do is to educate yourself about security! Even a baseline level of knowledge is more than enough to make a difference. Let’s go over the three-step process you can use to secure your business.
It All Starts with Training
Comprehensive cybersecurity starts with you and runs through the chain of command down to your employees. Training is a great way to make sure that everyone stays informed on security best practices and expectations. There are two major components that you’ll need to focus your training on: password security and phishing attacks.
Password Security
Most accounts require passwords, but not just any passwords. You should prepare your accounts with those that are complex and hard to guess, but they also need to be easy enough to remember, for your own sake. It is curcial to teach your employees about password security. However, it is easier said than done.
We recommend you set up passphrases to get the most security out of passwords while retaining the ease of use. Passphrases are the next-best option compared to a password manager. These consist of words that don’t normally go together, mixed in with letters, numbers, and symbols. By combining these, you create a complex password that is much less likely to be guessed by hackers.
Phishing Attacks
Identifying and responding to phishing attempts is crucial for your team, given that most cyberattacks stem from this method. Business tools rely on encryption, emphasizing the need to prevent deceptive attempts at unauthorized access.
Social engineering tactics are often leveraged against employees to convince them to inadvertently hand over their credentials, providing access to a system. Hackers might send suspicious messages under the guise of someone else, urging individuals to take immediate action in a situation they don’t fully understand. If the hacker successfully tricks the user, they will have easy access to a network or network-attached account.
Here are some of the cyber threats that people need to look out for:
- Messages from people/addresses employees don’t recognize demanding they take immediate action.
- Strange grammatical mistakes that wouldn’t normally be in a piece of official correspondence.
- Directions to click on suspicious links or open attachments.
Phishing attacks can be remarkably sophisticated and can often appear to come from someone within your organization, a family member, or authority figure. Be sure to encourage your team to always follow up in the event they receive an email or message about this. It could save you from a lot of headaches moving forward.
Next week, we will address some of the ideal tools and strategies you need to resolve the issues outlined in today’s blog. In the meantime, we urge you to contact us at 860.251.8003 for any and all security-related concerns. VISTECH is here to help you make the most of all of your technology, productively and securely.
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