Securing your Data

In the previous article we explored how the growing technological landscape of our workplaces – and lives as a whole – is opening opportunities for cyber criminals that previously didn’t exist. We also realised that business owners aren’t educating their teams sufficiently on the methods used by criminals to gain access and steal their data – or the potentially disastrous consequences if this should happen. We also explored some of the most common methods used by cyber criminals to get access to your data. We will now take this one step further and look at the ways in which you can best prepare your business for an attack.

How to be best prepared for a cyber attack:

Education

The most important method of preparing your system for an attack is – by some way – education. It is not common for employees to be especially familiar with the array of cyber threats out there, and they will likely have even less knowledge on their role in defending your systems against them – making this a priority could mean the difference between success and failure for the cyber criminals.

Passwords

Unique, complex, and lengthy – these are the words you should say to yourself every time you create a password. Each password should bear no similarities with any others already in use, and must not include words, phrases, or number/ letter sequences that have a personal connection to you. It makes perfect sense to ensure that each password is unique – and this is particularly important – because if they are all the same then once having cracked one password cyber criminals will have free access to any other systems that use the same one.

Multi factor authentication

In addition to a correct username/password combination, multi factor authentication requires additional access criteria to be met. This is most commonly something that only the authorised persons would know and is often a personal question, pin number or biometric data – most commonly a fingerprint that is only accessible by the authorised person.

Test passwords

Purchase a password testing tool. If you use Microsoft’s suite of tools, we recommend their Safety and Security Centre which contains a tool exactly for this purpose, but, if not, there are many others on the market.

Secure Mobile devices

Mobile devices are an important part of business functions. As they grow in popularity device security has never been of greater concern. Unless you implement strict security measures, if your device is stolen or lost it can easily be accessed, leaving the data on it open to whoever stole it. Upon purchasing any portable device, you must secure it with pin/ password protection as well as fingerprint or facial recognition controls wherever possible – the protection of those devices is very important.

The Human Firewall

Arguably the most important line of defence for your systems is your team – the human Firewall. Your users are the key to protecting your systems against cyber criminality. As we previously explained, they are the link between the tools you have purchased and their correct implementation and use. Without a competent team your data will never be safe.

As in the previous article, if you are in search of cyber security tools, expertise, or training for your team, please don’t hesitate to contact us and see how we can help you going forward. We can assist you in purchasing the right hardware and software for you and put you in good stead going forward.

We hope these articles have opened your eyes to the dangers of the Dark Web, the ways in which you and your team can avoid your data ending up there, and the methods cyber criminals use to attempt to steal your data.