The last workdays before Christmas is the perfect time to complete all urgent tasks, take inventory, and plan for the next year. Paying more attention to cybersecurity during this period can protect your company against attacks targeting small and medium-sized businesses. It is also very important not to miss the important steps that will ensure you enter the next year without a headache. You can use these few simple and effective cybersecurity measures to greatly reduce the risk of being hacked.
“Back up important data”
It can be caused by minor reasons such as unexpected loss of important files, corruption of hard disk, or cyber attacks. For example, ransomware, a malware, encrypts an entire operating system or individual files and demands a ransom for decryption. Worse, even if the company pays the ransom, there is no guarantee that criminals will recover sensitive documents. Regular offline backups give you access to important data in an emergency. You can also use a security solution that will allow you to make automatic backup copies.
“Update your devices and software”
Legacy software creates vulnerabilities and provides a great opportunity for attackers to break into corporate infrastructure. Before long holidays, don't forget to check and install new patches for all important apps. This process can be simplified with security solutions with a built-in patch management system.
“Refresh your passwords”
Trying to guess a password by trying all possible combinations of characters, brute force is one of the most common methods attackers use to infiltrate a business's network. This type of attack is more likely to be successful if the password they guess is weak and has been leaked before. To reduce the chance of your data being stolen, our first recommendation is to implement a strong password policy that requires a standard user account password to contain at least eight letters, a number, upper and lower case letters, and one special character.
“Control access to corporate data and systems”
Year-end periods are ideal for streamlining your access policy. And a recent survey says only half of executives are confident that their former employees still don't have access to corporate accounts or data. As this negligence can lead to serious data breaches, this issue needs to be addressed before it's too late. At first, make a list of employees who left the company this year and check if access has been revoked. Also, reduce the number of people with access to critical corporate data and reduce the amount of data available to all employees. Violations are more likely to occur in organizations where too many employees work with confidential valuable information that may be of interest to third parties.
“Don't forget the Christmas period scams”
Scammers are not afraid to take advantage of the holiday season by sending out special New Year offers, subscription renewals and gift cards in bulk to steal your personal information or money. The pre-Christmas rush is a huge distraction, so you or your employees may fall into a trap before they realize the potential dangers. Remind and remember the simple signs of phishing emails to your colleagues. These include typos, inconsistent sender addresses, and suspicious links. Also, before opening any attachment, check its format and the correctness of a link before clicking it. This can be achieved by hovering your mouse over the icon, make sure the address looks correct and the attached files are not executables (like .EXE).
Be the first to comment