Let me ask you a few questions—first, how confident are you that you could spot an online ruse, and second, did you know there’s a stain on your shirt right now? Did you look? If so, you’ve just fallen for the school playground version of social engineering, a serious threat. Let’s discuss the kind that you’re more likely to see in terms of your business’ cybersecurity.
As a business professional, it’s your responsibility to protect your company’s digital assets from cybercrime, but the path forward is not always so easy or clear-cut. Without a thorough knowledge and expertise of IT security at your disposal, it can be challenging to protect your infrastructure as adequately as it needs to be. Here are some of the common issues that involve cybersecurity, as well as how you can address them.
Your business is your livelihood, so it only makes sense to invest in its protections so that your livelihood is secure. This will require a strategic approach. Let’s go over what your business needs to remain sufficiently secure, and what you should look for from each to get the best, most secure option.
“Wait, I didn’t buy that!” That’s what many smartphone users have been saying lately, as a prevalent strain of malware has been infecting Android devices. The malware is called “toll fraud malware” and it’s been signing users up to services they don’t want.
Let’s get right to brass tacks. Your business is likely vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks. There are a whole lot of things you should be doing to protect your organization, but this one task is something you can do right now to save your business a lot of stress if something were to take down your network and cause a major disruption. Build an Emergency Contact Sheet as a Part of Your Business Continuity Plan Yep, it sounds simple. In fact, it’s probably something that you already have, but let’s make sure that it’s up-to-date and includes some good information that will help you and your staff in case there is a major disruption to your business. What do we mean by a disruption? Let’s assume you can’t access any of your systems; your line of business apps, your email, your contacts, and the documents on your server. Let’s assume that something big locks you and your staff out of everything for a day or two. It’s not ideal, and obviously we want businesses to work with us to be more prepared for this, and have safeguards in place to prevent this type of threat. Even so, having a really good contact list is going to be key for communication. Open up a Word document and list out the name and personal phone number of each employee, starting with management. Note if that number is a cell phone (so you know which numbers can be texted). Next, list out emergency contact information—the local fire department, police, 911, etc. List out insurance contact information. If you have an alarm company, add them to the list, and other vendors you might need to reach. We recommend adding (646) 741-1166 so you can call us if you need help. Finally, depending on your business, you may want to add some of your biggest, most important clients to that list. You’ll want to contact them first thing and let them know that there may be a disruption of services. If one morning you get alerted that your entire network is down and nobody can access anything, you’ll be so glad you had this. That’s a Good Start, But Business Continuity Doesn’t End There Having a thorough, tested business continuity plan is an important tool for any organization. Communication is key, and you’ll want to be able to keep your staff and customers in the loop if something disrupts your services. At Wolk9IT, we help businesses prepare for emergencies with our iron-clad data backup and disaster recovery services, and we can help protect your business from online threats and other problems that could cause major disruptions. For more information, give us a call today at (646) 741-1166.
Cloudflare has foiled the plans of yet another major hacking attack, a record-breaking DDoS attack of the likes we have never before seen. Let’s examine what goes into such an attack and what you can do to keep your business safe from their influence.
Businesses today have to deal with more potential problems than in any time in history. They are dealing with cost increases at every turn, personnel shortages, and a regulatory landscape that is always evolving. One of the biggest issues that can have a negative effect on a business is not having the processes and resources in place and working to secure its data and network. Today, we will look at five suggestions that can work to help your business keep its network and data more secure.
Security is an incredibly important part of running a business, but it’s extremely easy for busy employees to fall short of the security expectations you might place on them. This is why it is so important to train your employees on the many facets of cybersecurity. By training them, you are preparing them to tackle the plethora of challenges they will encounter throughout the workday.
How many security solutions does your organization have implemented at any given time? Traditionally, businesses have implemented what we call “point solutions,” which are software tools designed to address a specific part of your security infrastructure. While this approach is certainly better than not having security at all, it presents several problems that must also be addressed in order to most effectively protect your organization.
While we—for reasons that should be obvious—tend to focus our attention on preventing and avoiding cybersecurity breaches, it is important that we address how your business responds to a successful breach attempt. Let’s go over how to create a data breach response plan.