With business – both local and international – becoming tech-based, owners are overcome by the insecurity reality coming from cyberattacks. It is highly recommended that all businesses have a reliable tech team as well as a carved-out budget to install
cybersecurity at intervals.
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Cyberthreats aren’t just a problem for big corporations; At the height of online insecurity, small businesses using online operations are at the receiving end the most.
Research suggests that 22% of small businesses have been the targets of cyberattacks. Most Nigerian bosses are not quite sure how to go about cyberthreats. In the case of an attack, employees are forced to bear the losses.
Here are ways you can prevent answering to the carelessness of your organization. You can be proactive at the same time, reactive in the following ways:
You can talk to your colleagues at work, this is because workplace systems are connected. Most major security breaches involve an employee action that enabled hackers to gain access to the system. You need to educate them on network security best practices to prevent an incidence.
The filtering of spam and virus-infected email should occur outside your firewall. Not only does this reduce the amount of traffic on your internet connection, but it also ensures that email-based malicious code never enters your network. Additionally, you can set up your firewall to only accept email from a known source, your email filtering service.
Avoid visiting websites that are widely known as malicious sites or look suspicious. This is not simply a matter of making sure that users are not wasting time or exhibiting questionable taste. This is about real threats to your network. Malicious sites could install malware that might disrupt computer operation, gather your personal information or, in a worst-case scenario, gain total access to your machine onto your device.
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This is the cyber front door to your organization. A firewall is essentially the barrier that sits between a private internal network and the public Internet. It helps to monitor and filters incoming and outgoing network traffic by the authority of the organizations.
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Anti-Virus/Malware Updates
New viruses are deployed every day. Your antivirus and antimalware software need to be kept up to date. If your AV/AM software has not been kept current, it will be unable to detect and protect your system from new viruses.
Operating Systems (OS) are constantly being updated with security patches as vulnerabilities are discovered. You will need to regularly apply the updated patches and reboot systems to have the organization protected against the gimmicks of hackers.
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Application Security Patches
Just as it applies to that of the OS, applications are regularly updated to address newly discovered vulnerabilities. Something as simple as opening a PDF file could expose your organization’s system to the risks of cyber threats if the application is not fortified enough.
Change passwords regularly, Use different passwords for all accounts. You can use a reliable password management tool. A good password management tool will auto-generate complex passwords to bar hackers. It will encrypt your username, email and password so that it can’t be accessed by third parties.
It is also important to note that mobile devices and the internet of things (IoT) such as Smart screens, printers and Thermostats can be vulnerable to attacks. Do not sideline these devices in installing cyber protection tools as they connect with the organisation’s systems
Featured Image Source: Financial IT
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