Guarding your company against online threats: our best tips
Each and every day, black hat hackers attempt to wrest valuable data from servers around the web. Only cyber security chiefs stand in their way, deploying tools that rebuff these advances so the companies they represent can remain safe.
Their strategies are numerous, from making use of user and entity behavior analytics to simply ensuring employees use complex passwords that are changed on a regular basis.
Want to guard your company against online threats? Below, we’ll share our top tips that will keep your data out of the hands of criminals.
1) All software should be kept up to date
No piece of software is 100% immune from being cracked. Hackers prove this everyday, as they find ways to bypass security features by locating loopholes in a program’s code.
Fortunately, many of these people are employed by the same companies who make the software. These white hat hackers are paid to look for weaknesses so they can be patched.
Released to the public on a regular basis, these fixes offer the best possible way to stay safe against the black hats that lurk out there on the web.
These ill-intentioned hackers are never far behind the good guys, so do not delay to install updates when they are available.
2) Watch network users like a hawk
Many breaches of company servers are not initiated by those on the outside – they are employees on the inside who have been corrupted or got hired for the express purpose of betraying their employers.
Most often, however, they are disillusioned workers hell-bent on revenge for being disrespected/wrongly disciplined by their superiors.
This can be prevented by installing a system that harnesses user and entity behavior analytics to identify suspicious behaviors and actions on your intranet.
If they are taking actions that appear to be those consistent with a data thief, it alerts your IT administrator promptly, allowing them to take action against the suspicious user.
3) Use passwords that are much harder to crack
Setting up a firewall will be nothing more than an academic move if your workers are allowed to make easy to break passwords like ‘abc123’. With these, you would have a better chance of repelling a burglar from your home with a broken screen door.
All passwords need to be sufficiently complex to stymie guesses and brute force attacks. They should be 8-12 characters long, with a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
4) Defend yourself against phishers
Every day, e-mails and phone calls are sent/made impersonating colleagues, vendors, banks, and other players for the purpose of getting your rank and file hand over key pieces of information or to click on an attachment carrying a ransomware virus
They do this by using persuasive copy and speech to push the fear and trust buttons of their targets. Once they have been successfully manipulated, getting the info they want is shockingly easy.
As such, it is vital you take time to have a proper educational session for all staff to inform them of the dangers of phishing.
A little knowledge will arm your smart employees with the wits needed to dodge these insidious attacks.