No matter the size of your business n Geelong, small, medium or large, the threat of cyber attacks is growing. Cybersecurity for business (and not just Geelong) is something that needs to be taken incredibly seriously. We find that we are often called after a cyber attack has happened. As the adage goes, “prevention is better than the cure”. Calling an IT business to come in and do a cyber attack rescue is sometimes like calling the fire brigade after your house has already burnt down and you have no insurance.
Before we get into some cyber threats to consider this year, the best thing you can do is prepare your IT defences as best you can in advance. Contact an IT professional and implement simple processes and systems.
- Install a monitored firewall
- Update your email system with your IT supplier
- Educate your staff (don’t click suspicious links)
- Set up a backup system for local files (remote and offsite)
- Backup your cloud systems regularly
- Test your backup system
- Update old and outdated hardware
- Update old and outdated software (E.g. Windows 7 end of life)
It’s very difficult to retrieve data from a backup that doesn’t exist.
Threats on the rise
Crypto Locking Ransomware
Ransom ware continues to be a major issue for small to medium businesses and you would be amazed at how many local small to medium businesses in Geelong have been impacted. The re is often this misguided belief that hackers won’t be interested in your small to medium business here in Geelong. Think again. You are wrong if you are complacent. These people aren’t doing this manually. Thye have bots scouring the world wide web looking for businesses like yours that are vulnerable. There has also been a move to crypto hacking. The art of hijacking (unauthorised access) to your computer to aid in data mining for cryptocurrency.
Cyber security shortfalls
The advance in techniques adopted by cyber-attacks is growing rapidly and unless you are monitoring and aware of advances being made by these malicious cyber attackers you may be left vulnerable and exposed. IT security is not a set and forget checklist item for your small to medium business. It is 24 hours a day seven days a week. Bots don’t take weekends off, in fact, they never take a break.
When security patches are released you need to activate them as soon as possible. Ideally, within a 30-day window as a worst-case scenario. It very hard to update a patch sometimes when you are too busy to be aware that a security patch has been released. (Windows 7 will create an entire raft of issues for those that have to update after Windows 7 End of Life)
The disgruntled employee
A disgruntled ex-employee may still have access to proprietary and confidential data or even worse a current may be logged in to areas when unauthorised or logging on to restricted computer files? Staff are downloading new applications on systems they shouldn’t be. You need to talk with your IT professional. This is not something again that can be monitored internally. The threat here is real and needs to be considered.
The Cloud is safe. No need to worry
Again, you can’t be complacent here. The cloud is not safe and your small to medium business needs to be prepared and following processes and protocol. At the end of the day, it gets down to awareness and process. Back up your files offline regularly. Are you using cloud-based services, are you using layered.authentication? Be aware it’s not straight forward. It needs to be considered.
Cybersecurity is a real threat for all businesses in the new millennium and calling an IT expert after you have been cyber-attacked can be too late. Based in Geelong we service clients from all sizes of business in a vast range of business and industry categories. If you are concerned at your risk and exposure to cyber-attack call us now to discuss how we may be able to help.