Now is the perfect time to re-evaluate your practices and procedures to minimize your risk of a breach. Here is our expert advice on how to protect your company in 2021.
Set up MFA on Everything You Can
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) helps keep your most important accounts secure. In fact, according to Microsoft, MFA can block over 99.9% of account compromise attacks (Microsoft). It’s an extra layer of defense against hackers, and you should enable MFA on all accounts. We’re even starting to see cyber insurance carriers require MFA on key systems and accounts in order to provide coverage.
Although the long name can sound intimidating, MFA is quite simple to operate once enabled. All you have to do is validate your login attempt using two or more verification methods. For instance, you could type your password and use Face ID, or push an MFA alert on your phone after signing in on your computer.
You should set up MFA on all accounts. Office 365 accounts, VPNs, and banking accounts are all perfect candidates for MFA. Watch our recent video to find out more about why MFA is so important.
Consistent, Regular Employee Security Training
Some of the most common cyber-attacks we witness are social engineering attacks. Hackers use methods of phishing, spoofing, and malicious attachments to infiltrate your system and trick your people. The best way to prevent such attacks is to educate your team and create a culture of cybersecurity awareness.
Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. It only takes one person in the organization to cause a business-ending breach. Luckily, we’ve put together a video on the top causes to pause – check out the most common cyber-attack red flags.
Keep Everything Up to Date
Many of the updates you install on your operating systems (Apple, Windows) and applications (Adobe, Microsoft Office, etc.) are full of new security components. As software becomes more complex and offers you new features, hackers inevitability find security gaps to infiltrate. The longer you go between these critical updates, the longer your IT system is exposed to such malicious attacks.
A great example is Apple’s past iOS vulnerabilities. Recently, Apple released a crucial security update that fixed a major hole in iPhone’s and iPad’s security. Until the update was installed, hackers were able to remotely control your device without you ever knowing. While we trust big tech companies like Apple and Microsoft with our livelihoods, nothing is perfect. That’s why it’s so important to install the latest updates as soon as one is available.
Check out our tutorial on how to enable automatic updates on iPhones and iPads. That could be one less thing you have to worry about at the end of the day.
Validate You Have the Appropriate Cyber Insurance
Falling victim to a cyber-attack is inevitable nowadays. According to Verizon, 86% of these breaches are financially motivated (Verizon). The cost of a breach is far more expensive than most people anticipate. In fact, 60% of small and medium businesses that are hacked go out of business within six months (Inc.com). Cyber insurance is one of the essential components to ensuring your company can financially survive one of these expensive attacks.
If you don’t already have a cyber insurance policy, get one right now. Your IT provider’s insurance most likely doesn’t cover any attacks you experience, so if you fall victim, you’re on the hook for any unforeseen costs. This includes ransom, paying expert negotiators, replacing equipment, loss of billable hours, plus beefing up your security post-attack. Ransoms alone could mean potential bankruptcy for your company.
However, it’s also worth mentioning that cyber insurance policies vary greatly. Make sure you understand what’s covered and what isn’t by your policy. They may cover a portion of ransoms, but not equipment replacements.
Like with every threat, taking the necessary steps to keep yourself and others protected is essential. Your business is no different. By following these best tech practices, you are one step closer to protecting your business in 2021. Reach out to our team of experts if you have any questions or want to find out more ways to mitigate your risk level.
Sources:
One simple action you can take to prevent 99.9 percent of attacks on your accounts. Microsoft Security Blog. (2019, August, 2oth). Retrieved September 8th, 2022, from https://www.microsoft.com/secu….
2021 data breach investigations report. Verizon Business. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2021, from https://www.verizon.com/busine….
Galvin, J. (2018, May 7). 60 percent of small businesses fold within 6 months of a cyber attack. here’s how to protect yourself. Inc.com. Retrieved December 7, 2021, from https://www.inc.com/joe-galvin….
