The cybersecurity commandments: about small causes of big problems
Written by Angela Baker, Freelance writer at TrustMyPaper
When it comes to cybersecurity, it’s hard to overestimate the repercussions that minute issues can lead to. Both businesses and individuals are at risk if they don’t invest the necessary time and effort into securing their data.
While cybersecurity doesn’t seem to be on top of most business’s priority lists, statistics show that over half of US-based SMB’s will typically go out of business in less than a year after a data breach. It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of those breaches could have been prevented with basic cybersecurity measures.
In this article, I wanted to talk to you about the small things individuals and organisations can do to prevent large-scale issues. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Beware of phishing
Phishing is a widespread form of email fraud that will typically have the victims click on malicious links and collect their personal and/or financial data. Phishing practices often revolve around psychological manipulation, typically ensuring unsuspecting victims that the email they received is from a company whose services or products they use.
Here are a few things you can do to prevent phishing:
- Stay informed about the latest phishing practices
- Analyse the links you receive and the email addresses you receive suspicious emails from
- Make use of an anti-phishing toolbar
- Use a firewall
Don’t sleep on out-of-date software
Cyberattackers will often exploit some common vulnerabilities in popular software programs. Once in a while, even reputable software will end up having ridiculous security bugs . However, these bugs will commonly be identified very quickly and solved by the developer. There’s just one precondition: you need to update the software. Failing to do so will often leave you vulnerable to security bugs and hackers trying to exploit them.
Despite the fact that the vast majority of updates are free of charge and often are quick to install, organisations will often totally disregard them. Thus, remaining an easy target for opportunistic cybercriminals. This regards individual users too. It is often the case that even operational systems for both gadgets and computers will end up having significant vulnerabilities, which infers that it’s essential to keep an eye on early software updates.
Invest in education
As cybersecurity tactics become increasingly complex and intricate, users and organisations need to continually invest time and/ or money into education on the topic. This is especially relevant for businesses as the repercussions of a poor cybersecurity strategy can be incredibly costly.
Furthermore, a person that is versed in cybersecurity is a valuable addition to any company, so becoming initiated in basic and advanced cybersecurity is an impressive pro in your resume. There is a wide variety of businesses like Trust My Paper that have started combatting high levels of cyberattacks on the internet by recruiting professionals that have some knowledge in cybersecurity. It’s also safe to assume that this will become an increasingly relevant demand in job descriptions in the near future.
Change passwords regularly
Regularly changing your passwords is a great idea because even if somebody has gotten a hold of your password, they won’t be able to spy on you for prolonged periods of time. It is also essential to not use the same password for multiple accounts because this may lead to an overall breach of your security throughout a large spectrum of the online services you use.
Simply changing your passphrases once in a few months will help you keep spies at bay. However, it’s essential not to change passwords too often if you don’t have a reliable password manager. This will create a lot of confusion for both individual and corporate users.
When is the best time to change your password?
- When a service you use has reported a data breach.
- A service you use has reported that somebody has entered your account from a different location.
- A device you use has been infected with malware.
- You’ve previously shared the credentials with a third party.
- You’ve logged on a public computer .
Conclusion
Cybercrime is going to be a ubiquitous topic in the years to come, and it’s time for us to prepare for it.
There are enough people and enough ways to hack into our personal and corporate devices, which suggests that we need to stay informed and always take the minimum measures to prevent attacks.
We hope you found this article useful. Good luck!
Originally published at https://digileaders.com on July 31, 2019.
