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Cyber Security
Cyber Security and who is responsible for protecting your business?
Cybercrime is a fast-growing area of crime. More and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the Internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that knows no borders.
Here is an excerpt from a report from HM Government National Security Capability Review:
“Cyber security is vital for the UK. We have the highest levels of internet use in the G7 and rank third globally in levels of e-commerce. But the cyber threat from criminals and hostile states continues to rise, with more frequent and more complex attacks. Getting hold of hacking tools is easier and cheaper than ever. This has lowered the bar to entry for criminals and others to launch high-volume, low-sophistication attacks. Despite greater awareness, cyber security in the majority of organisations and households across the UK has not kept pace with the threat, and attacks continue to target our critical national infrastructure”.
So who is responsible for protecting your business against cybercrime? At the end of the day, the buck stops with you – You are! The Responsibility of all IT security lies squarely on the shoulders of the Company directors or small business owner to make sure their business is secure. Cybercrime is a major threat for any business and can kill or cripple a businesses reputation overnight. You cannot rely on your Antivirus Software or blame Microsoft or Apple for a cyber intrusion. Its all up to you and your staff to keep the defences up.
Some easy and basic ways to protect your business from Cyber crime
- Use STRONG passwords
- Keep “user” and “admin” account separate
- Have a Disaster recovery plan in place
- Change your Passwords every 60 days
- Staff Training
Use Strong Passwords
We all have different passwords for personal and work, if you or your staff use the same passwords for both, you or your staff could be putting your business at risk
Change your password every 60 days and enforce it in your business.
- Passwords should contain numbers, letters, uppercase, lowercase and symbols
- Contain at least 8-10characters
- A new password should be completely different from the last 4 changes
- When a staff member leaves for whatever reason, they should be taken off the system immediately or if you need to access the account for transition purposes, change the password.
Keep “user” and “admin” account separate
The main account or Admin account is the most sought-after account for cyber criminals, it is the main key and in the hands of a cyber criminal it opens a lot of doors giving them total control over everything. An admin account should be separate and kept separate, it should not be part of a user’s account. Users should not have any admin rights to their machines.
Staff Training
Human error is one of the main ways Cyber criminal can gain access to your Network. A simple innocent click on an email or a visit to a website by a staff member can be disastrous for any company and being infected with Ransomware, this is where all your data is locked and the cyber criminal demands a ransom to unlock your data and most times even after paying the ransom they still don’t unlock it.
Cyber essentials
The need for cyber security has grown tremendously over the last 12 months. So, with that the government is encouraging businesses to become more cyber security conscious and become accredited in a certification called Cyber Essentials, which is a relatively cheap way to cover all bases in cyber security and it also shows other businesses or clients that you take cyber security serious.
If you would like to know more about Cyber Essentials and your business, please Contact Control I.T Solutions on 01738 310271
