Don’t allow the Christmas cheer to distract you from your Cyber Security

Don’t allow the Christmas cheer to distract you from your Cyber Security

As we enter the festive season, and particularly this year, we all hope that Christmas will mean a time of being with the loved ones we missed out seeing last year. However, we can become distracted with events and parties, rather than really focusing on our businesses.

It’s at these times that ensuring your Cyber Security is robust is of paramount importance, because Cyber Criminals utilise this opportunity to attack your business.

Picture this, you are enjoying the festive season with your family, and you are notified that your systems are down?

Would you know who to contact? Would you know how to get your systems up and running again?

In any extended holiday season, your business defences are potentially vulnerable because a majority of the workforce are on holiday, and this presents a brilliant opportunity for Cyber Criminals to poke around your systems potentially undetected.

On July 4^th in the USA US IT Firm, Kaseya was attacked by a cybercrime gang who infiltrated their systems and posted a blog demanding a ransom of $70m. The repercussions affected 1,000 companies in their supply chain.

However, you really don’t need to be a global company to be at risk of attack. It really doesn’t take too much for hackers to attack your sensitive data if your vulnerabilities are not identified and protected.

Vodafone recently reported that more than 1.3 million small and medium-sized businesses across the UK could fold give the cost of an average cyberattack, which government data states is nearly £8,500!

 

We’ve compiled 7 top tips to keep your business secure at Christmas

 

1. Be careful of any emails you get!

Be aware of any emails that you are unsure of and do not click on any links because this could be a phishing email and could potentially download a virus on your system and damage your business by accessing all your data!

2. Consider a Password Manager

Do not write your passwords down! Consider a Password Manager that will help you keep track of your passwords.

3. Create Random Passwords

Now we understand how difficult it is to keep track of passwords, however, it is incredibly important that you do have different passwords to make it as difficult as possible for cyber criminals to attack. However, creating a strong random password is easy enough to remember when you have Password manager, but you can have 3 random words for example- redberryholly89!

4. Firewall – make sure you have a robust one!

You not only need one for the protection of your business but also your website! So do make sure that you update your CMS and control access management.

5. Make sure you create Back-ups

Creating back up is essential, however, you must make sure that they are in different locations from your cloud, network and systems.

6. 2FA is another layer of protection

Any new device trying to log in and make changes needs a second layer of security before access is given. 2 Factor Authentication includes single-use codes for a second layer of security for extra protection, with codes being sent to SMS, email, phone and any smartphone application.

7. Protect new devices

If you do purchase any new devices between now and Christmas, then you must ensure that you install the latest updates and patched to prevent cyber criminals from exploiting any faults in your old systems and software.

For a full, free comprehensive consultation on your Cyber protection this Christmas then give Mode a call and we can assess your environment and help you stay protected.

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