One of the greatest problems DragonTech faces at times is having to deal with horrendous security breaches or taking on new customers who do not understand the necessity of having a high level of cybersecurity. A lack of good cybersecurity is a ticking timebomb that can lead to disastrous consequences for the companies involved.
In the digital age, businesses find themselves dealing more and more with situations which require an extensive level of cybersecurity. Online transactions, the storing of customer data, and online accounts containing sensitive information are just a few of the situations in which cybersecurity plays an integral role.
Today we have 8 fantastic cybersecurity tips to share with you!
1: Ensure That You Regularly Assess Your Current Security Protocols
One of the issues you face being small business, is that inevitably, there is a potentiality for you to become a target for cybercrime. It is very important that you take the time to test how resilient your security protocols are in order to ensure that you don’t have to deal with issues like data breaches.
You should take the time to read up on ways in which you can improve your company’s security protocols and see how secure your online presence is. It is important to do everything possible to prevent cyber criminals from getting access to information held on your systems. At DragonTech, we are always happy to help take you through cybersecurity protocols, and we have experience working with companies all over the world ensuring the safety and security of their data.
2: Use Strong Passwords
A strong password can be the difference between a safe, uneventful day, and data loss resulting in your company being sued for potentially thousands of dollars. It is most important that your staff are using strong and unique passwords for every single service they use online. One of the running Jokes in the show Archer is the consistent use of the password: “Guest” when breaching high security computers.
Account takeovers can be terrifying. As an example, I use specialist software to post to social media for over 20 clients. This software has access to their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google My Business, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest. Now imagine someone got access to that and started posting bitcoin ads to all my client’s profiles. It would result in massive lawsuits against me, a loss of clients, and the end of my life as I know it, which would be ghastly.
This Year’s Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report shockingly revealed that more than 80% of breaches happened to use either brute force attacks or stolen credential information.
If you are worried about setting up long and complex passwords, we highly recommend and provide SolarWinds® Passportal™. It ensures that it’s easier to enforce best practices when setting up passwords and also allows you to easily grant and remove access to people who may need specific access to your logins at any given time. It allows you to generate strong, unique passwords for all of your sites and store them securely in a place where even hackers can’t get access to them.
3: Say No To Phishing!
When it comes to catastrophic data breaches, Phishing is a ghoulish contender. It is often one of the first steps in horrific corporate data breaches and the results of Phishing attacks have cost companies millions.
This year with the onset of COVID-19, there was a scary increase in email scams with cyber criminals using pandemic related information as a lure. It is important that your staff are educated about the potential damage caused by phishing attacks so they can avoid falling victim to some of these fraudulent emails.
DragonTech can help you secure your emails, whether they are hosted in Microsoft 365, G-Suite, or on your own web or email server. We also provide encrypted emails and document exchange for highly regulated industries, such as legal and healthcare.
4: Protect Your Client’s Data
One of the most important things to any business is their clients. One of the most important things to your clients is their personal data. Personal information about people such as addresses and bank account details are just a couple of things that can be obtained by cybercriminals if no security is put in place.
It is absolutely essential for any business that stores client data electronically to ensure its protection, or at least take steps to do so. Taking measures to protect yourself will act in your favour if you end up in a lawsuit due to a data breach as you will have attempted to protect your client’s valuable information. Not protecting this information will act against you in a court of law.
Not only can we help protect yours and your client’s data, but we also provide an extension of our own cyber liability insurance to our clients.
5: Ensure Encryption Requirements Are Established
Encrypting your data is an excellent way to protect your company from data breaches. If you encrypt your data, it reduces the likelihood that someone can use your information in the event of a data breach.
An example of encryption would be that our website here at DragonTech uses an SSL certificate to help protect our company against data breaches. To learn a little more about SSLs, check out my earlier blog: here!
6: Protect Your Company From Security Flaws With Timely Updates!
One of our services we run with our customers is to ensure that their digital security is always up to date. Older software can be exploited by cyber criminals as they will likely have tools or the knowledge to breach your security easily. Updating websites and plugins on those websites that your company uses for example will ensure that your site is more secure.
Another really important thing to update would be your antivirus software. Whichever antivirus software you use, you will want to ensure that it is always up to date and working to protect your interests, as software that isn’t updated will potentially leave you exposed to threats. However, not all antivirus software is created equal, and many of the most common offer you less protection than the built-in Windows Defender.
7: Defend Yourself From Threats
Outside of working with DragonTech as a blogger, marketer and web designer, I have worked with a huge amount of companies. So far I have dealt with 9 data breaches over here in the UK as of writing this. For me this is a timely and horrible experience, and it is always best avoided. The companies in question that experienced these data breaches refused to listen to any advice, or take steps to protect themselves against attack.
I was left to pick up the pieces on all these occasions, and yet people still do not want to protect themselves. You need online security. You need to protect yourself from digital threats and it is of the utmost importance. It is pointless to install an antivirus after a threat has eaten half your computer, sent your customer’s bank account details to the Hacker’s Pension Fund, and then get an SSL on your website after it’s informed all your customers that you and Elon Musk fully support Bitcoin and signed your customers up to lewd online content. If you don’t believe me, thousands of people like me deal with this on a daily basis, which you can look up online. Be proactive, protect yourself.
8: Tracking Logins And Using Role Based Permissions
A need-to-use basis can help keep your business secure. Need-to-use will help to prevent the chance of insider attacks, corporate espionage, and reduce the amount of data hackers can obtain. Despite their training, your staff may end up with a compromised account, if that account has only limited or need-to-use information, then such a data breach will not have such drastic complications as if an admin account is breached, which can make the apocalypse look like a cake walk.
Tracking of logins is also incredibly useful. There are methods to limit login attempts so your IT staff can track potential hacking and brute force attempts, and there are many softwares that can be used to help track who is logging in from where. With VPNs it is getting harder to trace hacker locations, however, it’s always good to do everything you can to limit their ability to access your information.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, on the behalf of everyone here at DragonTech, have a lovely day and stay safe!
