Cybercrime tactics continue to evolve, on almost a daily basis. Do you know what to look out for? What should catch your eye in a suspicious email? How to verify whether an attachment is malware or not?
Your computers – both at work at and at home – are probably among the most important things you own and use. Having all your data in one place, easy to access and utilize, is a great thing – but it poses an equally significant security risk. Are you sure your computers are secure?
When everything is going well, the last thing you want to do is think about what will happen when something goes wrong.
We don’t have to dwell on the potential for a security disaster though – you know that it’s a possibility, so let’s just leave it at that. What’s important about this is that you know to cover your bases.
No need to assume the worst – just plan for it, so you know you’re covered.
To start, let’s find out if you’re making any of these common security errors:
You Don’t Know What The Dangers Are
Cybercrime tactics continue to evolve, on almost a daily basis. Do you know what to look out for? What should catch your eye in a suspicious email? How to verify whether an attachment is malware or not? In cybersecurity, knowledge is power.
Don’t Make Assumptions
A key vulnerability is thinking your files are being automatically backed up, without actually setting it up that way or ever testing it.You may very well have a cloud service, but if it’s not configured to back up your desktop files, then it won’t, simple as that. If you’re assuming it does and then you get hit by ransomware, you’ll be out of luck.
One Wrong Click A major data breach can come down to just a single click – do you know what’s safe and what isn’t? Cybercriminals will hide dangerous malware via sites linked in emails, or even directly in the attachment, which is why you need to know what to look out for.
As you can see, there are plenty of simple mistakes that can lead to serious consequences. If you’re worried about making one of these critical errors, consider following some of these tips…
5 Tips For Securing Personal And Business Computers
Make Sure You Know What To Look Out For
Security awareness training can help you (and your staff) know how to recognize and avoid being victimized by phishing emails and scam websites.You learn how to handle security incidents when they occur. If you are informed about what to watch for, how to block attempts and where they can turn for help, this alone is worth the investment. A comprehensive cybersecurity training program will teach you how to handle a range of potential situations:
How to identify and address suspicious emails, phishing attempts, social engineering tactics, and more.
How to use business technology without exposing data and other assets to external threats by accident.
How to respond when you suspect that an attack is occurring or has occurred.
Verify And Test Your Backups If you want your desktop files backed up, it’s your responsibility to make sure your cloud is doing so automatically. You must have a backup copy of your data if it’s stolen or accidentally deleted. Develop a Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery policy that specifies…
What data is backed up
How often it’s backed up
Where it’s stored
Who has access to the backups Backup to both an external drive in your office and a remote, secure, online data center. Set backups to occur automatically. And make sure your backup systems are encrypted.
Double Check Before You Click
No matter who the email is from or what it’s about, always exercise caution when it comes to clicking on a link or downloading an attachment:
Be wary of malicious attachments in email messages. They may contain malware that can infect your computer.
Check to see who the real sender of the message is. The company name in the “From” field should match the address. Also, watch for addresses that contain typographical errors like jsmith@wellsfarg0.com.
Hover over the URL in the email to view the full address. If you don’t recognize it, or if all the URLs in the email are the same, this is probably a phishing threat. Also, make sure that you and your employees know that all reputable URLs now start with https rather than http.
Use an email client that scans attachments for malware, and never autorun an .exe file you’re unsure about.
Use Next Generation Security Solutions
These advanced types of cybersecurity software (firewalls, antivirus, antimalware) use artificial intelligence to better predict, identify and eliminate harmful malware.Security based on advanced algorithms that can adapt and learn creates a system that can become familiar with the normal patterns associated with each user and device, detecting anomalies in those patterns quickly.Essentially, something known as a neural net can be used in cybersecurity efforts. Based on a robust algorithm, the neural net can “learn” to spot patterns of data associated with previously identified and classified spear phishing emails.By incorporating this technology into an email client’s spam filter, the filter will be able to spot fraudulent incoming emails and eliminate them before they reach the recipient.One of the best parts about neural nets is that they continue to learn and improve the more that they are used. With increasingly more data to draw from, this Artificial Intelligence will become more and more accurate in doing its job.
Work With A Salt Lake City IT Company Whereas many of these tips will suffice for personal, at-home security purposes, when it comes to the business setting, you’d be wise to work with a Salt Lake City IT company.It’s likely you don’t have the time or knowledge base on staff needed to implement these kinds of security solutions business-wide – that’s where the right Salt Lake City IT company can help. Enhancing and verifying business security is what they do – they’ll have the experience and skills needed to do it right.
If you haven’t encountered a cybersecurity issue yet, don’t let that give you false confidence. The right move is to see to your cybersecurity now, and not try to handle damage control after you’ve been hit with malware.
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