IT security is extremely important to all of us, whether it be within your organisation or at home! We all want to keep our trade secrets, online banking, customer data etc private. The UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey reported that 2 in 5 UK organisations reported a data breach or cyber-attack in the last 12 months.
So we have decided to share some quick tips/ways to improve yours…
Passwords and multi-factor authentication
- Passwords are extremely important to any organisation or individual. Above is a chart of how long it takes to hack various password variations. Obviously aiming for the green end of the chart is recommended and even with this, we would still recommend you ensure staff change their passwords regularly.
- Use a Password Manager – these will remember your complex passwords for you. Do not write passwords down and leave them anywhere.
- Always ensure you use different passwords across all of your accounts. If you use the same one and someone hacks it – they will have access to everything.
- Multi-factor authentication acts as a fail safe for passwords. A multi-factor authentication will send a notification to your mobile phone/device to confirm the access request is really you. If it isn’t, you simply confirm this was not you and the MFA will reject the access request. Notify admins should this happen. Multi-factor authentication is available on most emails, social media sites, online banking etc. For extra security, check out DUO.
Anti-virus and Malware
- Anti-virus helps to reduce the quantity of phishing emails that hit your inbox and anti-malware helps protect you from the malicious files in phishing emails.
- They also offer some protection for when your employees are using the internet. We suggest taking a look at AMP (Advanced Malware Protection for Endpoints), free trials are available too.
- For help or advice on your organisation’s IT security – please do not hesitate to contact us.
Install updates regularly
- It is very important to install security updates on your computers and network to protect you from malicious attacks.
- Over 60% of organisations have suffered a breach over the last couple of years had the right patches in place but could not install them in time.
- Failing to install security updates will leave your organisation exposed. A lot of organisations are now allowing staff members to use their own devices for work. A clear process needs to be in place for making sure that any device that connects to your network is also installing updates on a regular basis.
Ensure your staff are fully trained on cyber-security
- Ensure you conduct regular cyber-security training with all of your staff members, phishing emails are very popular at the moment and if employees are not able to spot these scams, the whole organisation is at risk. Click here to see a scam that one of our colleagues received via email.
- Training should be given to employees during their induction and then repeated yearly. Your employees can then understand their role in protecting your organisation.
Backup your data
- Data is crucial to any organisation. With the number of cyber-attacks each organisation now faces, your IT team should be preparing for being hit and a big part of this is backing up your data.
- The majority (93%) of organisations that suffer a data breach for 10 days or more do not survive.
- Properly backing up your data will help your organisation recover from a data breach, and the quicker you can recover this data the less damage and disruption is caused to your business.
Review your policies and procedures
- Technology and cyber-crime moves quickly. Keeping up to date policies and procedures to reflect this is important. With each vulnerability that is discovered you will need to update these to cover that fix or change in working.
- Employees should be made aware of all changes made and be kept informed.
- You can carry out a penetration test with your IT supplier to show any holes in your cyber-security.
- To arrange your FREE, no obligation security audit – click here.
Stay well informed
- Cyber-crime is a big money industry that cyber-criminals move very quickly and effectively in their techniques. Staying informed on the latest trends in IT/cyber-security will benefit you and your organisation.
- Even if you outsource your IT/cyber-security you should be aware of everything to do with this as if anything happens, it is down to the business owner ultimately.
- You can find up to date blogs here at Re-solution and should you wish to discuss your cyber-security contact us on 020 3880 8369 or [email protected]
