Each New Year, we all make resolutions to achieve a new challenge, or take up new hobby. Most of us give up on our diets or going to the gym by the end of January.
Our Cyber Security New Year’s Resolutions for 2022 will keep your organisation secure throughout the year ahead.
1. Always Remain Vigilant Against Phishing Attacks
2021 saw a massive surge in phishing attacks as cyber criminals continued to exploit the fear caused by the global pandemic. Last year, Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that cybercrime would cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015.
A phishing attack is when a cybercriminal seeks to trick victims into revealing sensitive information. This may all start with a fraudulent email, where the cybercriminal pretends to be someone that you know or trust such as your bank or your work.
What to look out for?
• Incorrect Domains
• Impersonal Introductions
• Spelling and Grammar Errors
• Threats or a Sense of Urgency
• Suspicious Attachments
Smart IT’s Managed Cloud Email Security solutions have been specifically designed to provide maximum email security, while minimizing the costs and headaches commonly associated with other email security systems.
2. Implement Multi Factor Authentication
Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) is a very effective way to provide enhanced cyber security. MFA combines a password with another form of authentication to help increase the confidence that the user requesting access is who they claim to be. Examples of the second form of authentication are; a code sent as a Text (SMS) message to your mobile phone, codes sent to the users email address, fingerprints or codes generated by apps on your smart phone.
As many employees continue to work remotely in 2022, multi-factor authentication can provide a secure way to access company data without compromising corporate networks, keeping sensitive company information private and secure from interception. Smart IT’S Multi-factor authentication (MFA) protects against unauthorised parties gaining access to a system.
3. Use Encryption
With today’s online and mobile society, confidential data is always on the move and always at risk. With one innocent click, years of product research, valuable intellectual property, and millions of pounds in account data can be lost through a simple email message. We all already use encryption a lot in our daily life, and maybe don’t even know it. Do you send messages using WhatsApp? That’s encryption. Do you purchase from an online shop? That’s encryption too.
There’re many features included within Encryption, read our web page to find out more, but, essentially, encryption randomises data so that only an authorised recipient with a key can see it. Easy to implement, manage and use, Smart IT Email Encryption is a scalable, reliable and secure service which protects your most valuable and confidential data.
4. Review & Test Back up Processes
Data is like trust, it takes a lifetime to build, a split second to lose! Every business uses data daily. If you lost your critical data, what would you do? If you do not have backup, chances are it would destroy your business or if you are lucky, you would gradually work your way back. In fact, 70%* of companies go out of business after a major data loss (*DTI).
We recommend the 3-2-1 rule, which was initially established to address hard drive failures.
The 3,2,1, strategy is extremely simple
• 3 copies of your data should be maintained
• 2 copies of that data to be stored on different media types
• 1 backup copy to be stored offsite
Remember, most importantly, test that backups work by performing a dry run of using them to restore data. All too often this is not tested and when backups do need to be restored, the process does not work correctly, resulting in loss of data.
5. Regularly Update Software
Patching is estimated to prevent up to 85% of all cyber-attacks so it’s vital you regularly update your software to ensure you are running the most up to date version.
Regularly updating your software and operating systems is the easiest, most time-efficient way to improve your cybersecurity. Even, the best software becomes outdated or develops gaps and, when it does, cybercriminals suddenly have an easy route into your business.
