Wellness is a popular topic in today’s world, and rightfully so. It’s tough to achieve your dreams and goals if you neglect to take care of your physical, emotional, family, social, and career needs. To set ourselves up for success, we attempt to eat healthily, visit the doctor for an annual checkup or physical, choose to spend quality time with friends and family, read up on topics of interest, and generally put ourselves in a positive position to get what we desire.
Why cyber hygiene is important?
Creating a routine around cyber hygiene helps ensure a system's health by enabling practices that continually help prevent cybercriminals from causing security breaches, installing malware or stealing personal information. Having proper cyber hygiene also ensures better incident response if a successful attack occurs.
Shared responsibility
Cyber hygiene works only when the employer and the employee clearly know their roles and understand the consequences of their actions. Everybody, from office administrator to CEO, must know the purpose of a strong password, two-factor authentication, file encryption, and secure behavior online.
Companies have to be wary of the attacks from outside, but keep in mind that incidents might occur within the organization as well. We’ll take a look at some tips that will help to fight off cyber threats of the digital world.
Creating Cyber Hygiene Culture
Install antivirus software
Antivirus will prevent your computer system from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, adware, and other types of malware. Malicious apps can damage your IT infrastructure, steal your sensitive information, and they are always evolving.
Update your system regularly
It is very important to regularly update your operating system, apps, antivirus, and other software. Sometimes a pop-up for an update appears when you’re in the middle of work and we postpone it for the next day. And then for the next, again and again. Remember the part about routine? This is exactly what we are talking about. Updating your system regularly is like brushing your teeth — it takes time, and sometimes we get lazy, but it can cut the dentist bills in the future.
Use strong passwords
Many people use the same password for all of their accounts, and that’s one of the most common mistakes. Imagine using one key for your apartment, office, and car — this key would be worth gold in the wrong hands. However, many wouldn’t blink twice to use the same password for everything from their work email to Instagram account. Your logins and passwords can be leaked and end up in the black market — when you use the same one for all your accounts, you become vulnerable. The safest option is to use long scrambled passwords of letters, numbers, and special characters. Are you thinking: “How on earth am I supposed to remember that?” Don't panic — there are tools for managing your passwords.
Encrypt your files
It is advisable to encrypt your sensitive information. With Encryption tools, you can encrypt all types of files on your hard drive and share them with your co-workers securely. You don’t need to exchange any passwords as everyone accesses their digital vaults with their own passwords. Contracts, legal documents, financial statements — everything can be secured with Encryption tools and kept on a computer or in the cloud storage. Even if you lose your machine, nobody will be able to access the files.
Back up data
Infected hard drive, broken computer, or accidental deletion — there are thousands of ways to lose your important documents. We recommend backing up your files on an external drive or cloud storage and keeping them encrypted. This way, you can be sure that if something happens, your data is always within reach.
Limit users
The bigger your organization is, the more seriously you have to take the administrative privileges of IT infrastructure. Make sure to limit access rights so employees could only use the tools and information they need to perform their tasks.
You have to keep logs and monitor networks to track the actions of every user in case of cyber incidents.
Common Cyber Hygiene Issues
Some problem that can arise due to poor Cyber Hygiene
Loss of Data: Hard drives and online cloud storage that aren’t backed up or maintained can be vulnerable to hacking, corruption, and other problems that could result in the loss of important information.
Misplaced Data: Improper file system organization can lead to misplaced files and is becoming increasingly commonplace as organizations grow.
Data Breach: The most severe and damaging to organizations is the data breach. There are constant and immediate threats where a single click can mean a slow and costly recovery. Phishing, malware, spam, viruses, and a variety of other threats exist in the modern threat landscape, which is constantly changing as new vulnerabilities and social engineering techniques emerge.
Software Vulnerabilities: Out of date software and failures in patch management are one of the leading causes of breaches at organizations and have led to many reputable organizations suffering unnecessary incidents. Patches and updates to software (not just Windows operating systems, but other software like Microsoft Office, Adobe, Java, Flash, and many others) are released to fix known vulnerabilities that hackers exploit in those software applications to access computers and networks.
Malicious Software: New versions and variants of malware are released daily, challenging traditional antivirus applications to work harder just to keep up. Traditional antivirus software and other security software must be updated at least weekly to keep pace with the ever-changing threat landscape. Also, consider more advanced forms of anti-malware solutions, like Carbon Black or Cylance, which look at the behavior of files and applications, rather than relying on outdated signatures to catch only the known-bad malware.
Take your cyber hygiene seriously — it will save you money, and some brain cells in the future. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.