However, that does not guarantee that a small to mid-sized business cannot be a target for hackers. Ideally, most attacks leave companies beyond recovery, and if they recover, it’ll have to take a lot of time.

Therefore, such an attack on a small business can only be overwhelming. Often, such businesses lack the awareness of security risks that they face, and those who are aware of the threat landscape could lack the resources to effectively combat the risks.

There’s no denying that the cost for such a data breach is extremely high that could even mean that your business won’t survive such an attack. Therefore, your small business must make cybersecurity a priority.

Moreover, small businesses are an attractive target for hackers as they have the ideal information that hackers want. For instance, they seek the personal information of customers that they’ll exploit later, such as identity theft. Therefore, never think that your business is too small and won’t be targeted.

Perhaps, you may not know where to begin, but fortunately for you, this guide has been specifically tailored for you.

Top cybersecurity practices for any small to mid-sized firm

Double Down Your Firewall

It’s easier said than done, that the first line of defense against cybersecurity is using a firewall. So, is your small process safe?

Ensure that you activate and use the standard external firewall for your business. Furthermore, you need to double things up by installing internal firewalls for additional protection. In case you have employees working from home, then ensure that they install a firewall on their networks.

Enforce Safe and Strong Password Practices

It’s true that changing passwords is always a pain to employees; however, it’s a necessary practice to use in your business. Apparently, most of the attacks have taken place as a result of passwords lost, stolen, or are very weak.

In a 2020 Lifewire guide, the publication listed examples of strong passwords. In a similar report, PrivacySavvy.com listed the most hackable passwords in their report. Both those reports clearly tell why it’s critical to enforce robust password practices today.

Therefore, ensure that all employee devices that access the company network are password protected. Also, the passwords should be strong and not easily guessed. In the case of a common company password, it’s advisable that you keep it strong and changed as often as possible.

Back-Up All the Data

They say that nothing is perfect! So, what does that one mean?

It means that as much as you’re trying to prevent an attack, it’s very much possible that you can still be attacked. Therefore, to be on the safer side, you should take precautions.

Ensure that you back up all your data; financial files, word processing documents, databases, electronic spreadsheets, human resources files, and all the data in the cloud. That information should be stored separately to ensure that you can access it easily if it will ever be required. Moreover, you should check the backup often to ensure it is functioning correctly.

Employ Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor and two-factor authentication is usually common for most businesses such as e-commerce stores that offer online transactions, banks as well as social media accounts. It’s a measure that helps to add some extra security layer to the user’s account, meaning anyone cannot access it even with a password unless with a successful authentication with another factor such as a biometric impression or a code.

Therefore, if your business requires that customers create accounts, then ensure that you enable multi-factor authentication to secure your customers’ personal data.

Use Security Tools and Software

In addition to cloud backups and passwords, you should ensure that you invest as well in other software and tools, such as anti-malware software. There are several routes that your employees might find themselves in trouble, like through phishing emails and several other social traps.

Therefore, with anti-malware, phishing emails can be filtered out quickly, leaving your employees safe.

Furthermore, your business needs to make use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). They’re a common security measure that will surely keep your data from hackers. Ideally, they help create an encrypted ‘tunnel’ via which your traffic data travels without being watched by third parties. Therefore, ensure you install one of the VPNs available, such as ExpressVPN, PureVPN, or NordVPN.

Train Your Employees

Doing every right would be useless if you don’t train your employees. Your employees should get practical knowledge about cybersecurity and why it’s significant to be secure; otherwise, they might not take it seriously.

For instance, you need to conduct some simulations as well as security breach drills to ensure that the staff has a clear idea of what they should do to avoid potential breaches. Moreover, they should have an idea of what should be done in case a breach takes place.

Consider BYOD

Another thing that a small business should consider is the BYOD as well as other remote working risks. The best way to reduce risks that are associated with remote working is by simply setting up clear guidance on how personal devices should be used.

For instance, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy should be part of the business’s best security practices to ensure that all employees maintain the highest levels of security on every device used to access the company network.

Update Computers Frequently

One of the best and easy ways that you can keep your data from hackers is by frequently updating your business computers. All business laptops, desktops, and mobile devices should be updated consistently. That way, new security patches can be introduced to the devices to protect the system against the latest hacking techniques.

Wrapping Up

Nevertheless, regardless of the size of your business, security should be a no-brainer. Moreover, security is merely a moving target, and hackers advance each day. Therefore, as they advance, you should never be left behind. But instead, you should be on the front foot. Therefore, with practices such as updating your devices, keeping strong passwords, installing anti-malware, and regularly backing up data, your business will be secure from cybersecurity.

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Weak passwords 

When setting passwords for company accounts, businesses often go with their first association, such as the headquarters address or the CEO’s dog’s name (that actually happened at my former workplace). Passwords like these are familiar and easy to remember for everyone within the organization. The problem is: they’re also very easy to crack. 

If you don’t want your passwords to fall prey to hackers, there are some easy steps you can take. First of all, password generators are a life-saver when it comes to protecting your accounts with strong passwords. Using one of these tools, you can generate a high-security unique password of chosen length (the longer the better, though). Always make sure to set a different password for each account – this will protect you in case one of them gets compromised. 

A string of random numbers and characters is hard to crack but also impossible to remember. Password managers like 1Password, KeePass and LastPass will let you access all your passwords with one master key and can be used for the entire organization with the multi-user account. To pick a secure master key, run your ideas through this tool to see if they’ve ever been exposed in a data breach before. If yes, it’s better to stay clear of them. 

Also Read: masters in cyber security

online cybersecurity degrees

Free VPNs

As internet privacy concerns have been rising in recent years, VPNs became an incredibly popular tool for people to protect themselves against internet surveillance. VPN, or Virtual Private Network, allows you to encrypt your internet traffic and hide your browsing activity from prying eyes, such as the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or advertisers. 

While VPN is great in principle, its popularity led to a flood of fake or malicious VPN services, tempting users with no fees. According to research by Top10VPN, out of 150 most popular free VPN apps for Android, 18 percent tested positive for viruses and malware. And that’s not the only problem. More than half of the apps had intrusive permissions, such as recording via the microphone without users’ knowledge or accessing their contact list. And a quarter of the apps suffered from DNS leaks exposing users’ browsing history to their ISP, which defeats the point of using a VPN entirely. 

If your business is using a free VPN, it’s high time to get rid of it and look for a trustworthy VPN provider with a no-log policy. Make sure to do your research and carefully read terms and conditions before you commit. Watch out especially for what types of permissions the provider requests and whether they keep your data logs (they shouldn’t). 

Bad cybersecurity hygiene

The best way to protect your company from dangerous freeware is to educate the team on how to distinguish verified free software that can be useful for day-to-day operations (such as Skype or Dropbox) from a hacker’s bait. 

Freeware, or free software, is great as long as it’s actually free. Free from a subscription cost, and free from malware. A common risk is a free software containing malware that can take control of your computer or even lock up important files for a ransom.

Never download anything without doing thorough research on whether the software can be trusted and what the trade-off is for using it free (you’ll often find that the price is your data). Second, keep security programs up-to-date – make sure both your operating system and web browser are updated to the latest version.

Suspicious and phishing emails 

Email attachments can contain all kinds of malware that you’ll unknowingly download on your computer. Most people are careful enough not to open attachments or click links in unsolicited emails, but that’s not the only risk. 

Cybercriminals can hack your friend’s or coworker’s email account and send dangerous malware to their entire contact list. If you ever find suspicious attachments in your inbox, even from a reliable source, it’s best to check with the sender if the email actually came from them. If not, they should immediately change their password and notify everyone in their network of the security threat. 

Another common email scam is phishing. Hackers may hack into a person’s email to disseminate malware or ask for account credentials. Otherwise, they might set up fake email addresses that resemble an authority from a reputable domain in order to trick you to download an attachment or give up your sensitive information. In this case, it’s important to remember that a legit company would never request your personal information via email nor would they send you an unsolicited attachment. 

When in doubt, take a closer look at the email address (if the domain turns out to be paypal14.com instead of paypal.com, you know you’re dealing with fraud) or contact the person or company who allegedly sent the message to verify it.

The post 4 Cybersecurity Pitfalls Your Company Should Watch Out For appeared first on Tech Today Info.

Which cybercrimes are on the rise?

• Crypto-jacking

The use of cryptocurrencies is an emerging trend and its use is highly encouraged. However, it is not as secure as hackers have found a way into the system and massive damage is on the rise. The users of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as lite coin are in the spotlight in the eyes of hackers.

The hackers access the computer of the user and overload it with crypto mining codes that slow the user’s computer. On the other hand, a prompting email that is convincing enough pops prompting the user to click it, and once done, it runs in the background as the user works. This is one of the methods the hackers use to illegally mine using the owner’s account.

Another common method used is injecting your system with Trojans. Trojans have the ability to access any information on your computer including your public key; sort of a bank account to withdraw funds from and a private key; a code that acts as a password to your e-wallets. With access to these two, your cryptocurrencies are not secure.

Phishing emails are common to almost all of us in the 21st century. Hackers send an email about system updates and when updating your information, unfortunately, the hackers access it and can use it against your own will for their own benefit. This way, one day you just wake up to zero coins in your wallet.

What can be done to ensure we all have a secure e-wallet and go through our normal lives without the worry of being hacked? It is evident we need to be on the lookout and know how to protect ourselves from unethical hackers.

• Use a strong password. Avoid using obvious passwords such as your date of birth or that of a relative. Be creative and create an alphanumeric password that will be easy for you to remember.
• Use a good anti-virus. You could even opt to purchase one of these if it can give you a good service and block injectable viruses such as Trojans. Also, remember to keep your anti-virus up to date and learn the new features that come with it.
• Ensure your private key is offline. This will make it hard for the hackers to access it keeping you and your wallets safe.
• Avoid unknown or suspicious links an emails. They might mimic that of cryptocurrencies but be sure it is from the legit company before clicking the link.
• Back up your digital wallet. This will allow you to access your currencies in case you lose your computer or it is stolen. This will also allow you to block unauthorized users remotely.

• Data breach

Personal information shared over the internet is not secured. Information on our profiles on social media is not secure either. Your certificates that are not encrypted and are on your laptop are neither secured nor completely personal. Anyone could access this information and use it for their personal gains.

Data privacy is a motion that is highly encouraged all over the world. Hackers could access data that is valuable to you and ask for an amount of money so that you could access it back. This is a new trend as even politicians use this against their opponents. They access sensitive information then use it to threaten the opponent to step down or expose it to the public and media houses.

Personal information is very sensitive. The use of ransomware is also on the rise where software is maliciously installed into the system and continuously displays a prompting message demanding a fee to be able to access the computer.

Unfortunately, most of us have fallen victims of this act. The good news is that there is an anti-ransomware procedure.

i. Use of automatic file recovery

ii. User file protection

iii. Attacker behavioral analysis program.

To avoid unauthorized access to your information, consider the use of biometric identification where your fingerprint or iris can be used to protect your data. The levels of authentication which include single factor, two factor, and multiple factor authentications are also handy to an individual.

Consider using a reliable firewall. This will filter all the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on your own preferences.

• Cloud security

A multibillion company such as Netflix relies on cloud computing to stream is videos to their consumers. It is evident this is an emerging trend that is saving companies the cost of owning and building their own infrastructure. However, the question at hand is how secure is it for companies to rely on cloud computing to avoid deletion, theft, or leakage of their online data?

The main challenge facing cloud computing is allowing the staff to easily access the data stored in the cloud. This has seen the introduction of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allows the company staff to access data remotely.

However, the use of insecure APIs has led to unauthorized access to the cloud. The use of secure APIs is as important as securing the data in the cloud.

Companies and individuals have been discouraged from storing sensitive and personal information in the cloud. However, this is not easy to dodge as one just needs a secure application to store their data. Strong passwords are encouraged to protect your data in the cloud together with a backup as anything bad could happen. However, cloud computing is considered to be secure as it has very experienced cybersecurity experts, and cloud misconfigurations are minimal.

Consider cybersecurity as important as your own personal security.

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As the publication explains, the OTA conveys a general idea of ​​what the situation on the Network is currently, but it is difficult to obtain a complete and accurate picture of the global landscape, since a large part of the databases are regional. Threats that arise on the Internet are not reported. For Hervé Lambert, director of Consumer Operations at Panda Security, it is essential to denounce all kinds of attacks “to do forensic analysis and find out where they have entered and what tools they have used.” “It would allow us all to do a better job,” he explains. . In addition, Lambert believes that most of the time it is not done by image, since organizations do not want to know that they have been victims of data theft.

The OTA has analyzed for it sreport  ranswomware  attacks  (kidnappings of computer systems accompanied by a rescue request), obtaining compromised data from emails, denial of service attacks (the inability to use certain services) and the vulnerability of connected devices, among other threats to Internet security

The study reflects that the kidnapping of data systems decreased in the number of incidents recorded last year compared to the previous year, but their financial impact increased by 60%. The cryptojacking – theft criptomonedas- also declined as the year progressed, in line with the decreasing value of virtual currency.

In addition, the study has highlighted that the largest data breach occurred in the records of Aadhaar ( the national identification database of India), which compromised 1,100 million data, and by the Facebook and Cambridge Analyticascandal , which affected 87 million people and involved a debate about the protection and use appropriate to user data.

Miguel Juan, managing partner of S2 Grupo, a cybersecurity company that works with the Ministry of Defense, believes that it is necessary to raise awareness on the part of corporations because any company, even if it is small and thinks it has no relevance, is likely to be attacked . This is due to three reasons: “Many of the attacks that are made start automatically because criminals have botswho surf the web looking for vulnerabilities. In addition, they all have interesting information, especially that which has to do with people and means of payment. On the other hand, if you can take control of the company’s computer equipment, they can be used to make attacks on other sites (and become part of the network that is being used for attacks) or to undermine cryptocurrencies, ”he explains. Juan. Another study , prepared by the company ESI ThoughtLab and focused on the analysis of cybersecurity in companies, estimates that more than one in ten companies lose about 10 million dollars in a year.

Regarding the attacks known as Business Email Compromise (BEC), that is, those with which data are obtained from the emails of the companies, have increased during 2018. With this threat, the employees of the organizations are deceived by attackers who pretend to be sellers or executives, to send funds (or equivalents, such as gift cards) in response to emails. The FBI said that there were 20,000 attacks of this type in the United States alone, which have resulted in losses of $ 1.3 billion.

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