We are now living in a world that has virtually evolved into a cyber world. There are many things that we now accept as commonplace even though they happen online, instead of in the world we live in. As we’ve progressed into such a lifestyle, we’ve also been faced with many more
Do not fall for spam links
Most of us are familiar with spam links being ones that are inserted into a website so the SERPs (search engine results pages) are manipulated – a form of negative SEO. Unfortunately, these links usually aren’t well hidden so people can see when they’re there. When you have too many of these links in your website, they will definitely drag your website down.
However, Smart Data Collective says you’d be surprised by how many of these types of links get emailed back and forth on a daily basis. If your employees don’t know what to look for or watch out for here, it’s possible they may click on them and unleash a potentially, highly dangerous malware attack on your entire business. This is why it’s so important to teach them to report these links each and every time they enter your inbox and never click on them.
Enable data privacy feature on your system
Data protection is the process of safeguarding important information, so it doesn’t get compromised, corrupted, or lost. This is something that’s going to grow even more important as the amount of data that’s being created and stored will continue to grow at an unpredicted rate. It’s important for businesses to enable as many types of data protection and privacy features as possible on all the systems and devices you’re using.
Use endpoint protection
You need to think beyond the computers and smartphones you use, to your other endpoint devices, which essentially includes anything that you’d connect to the Internet such as tablets, thin clients, printers, and other types of hardware (e.g. POS terminals, smart meters). It’s important to protect all these things too. Fortunately, this is something that Android security is very effective at doing today.
When you’re putting together a plan of protection for these hardware items in your business, you’ll want to think beyond traditional antivirus software. While this software is important and effective, safe-browsing and anti-fraud tools are also important. They’ll help prevent any drive-by downloads, credit card theft, and the loss of other sensitive information caused by things like phishing attacks or using a compromised Wi-Fi network.
Fortunately, there are some ways in which you can mitigate exploits and threats like zero-day attack simply by using tools for machine learning. These create Heuristics (an algorithm that will create a fast, acceptable solution) and sandboxing (isolating the hardware from your other critical systems – a way of isolating things before the effects become too bad).
Backup regularly
Backing up your devices has always been important, but now it plays an even more important role when it comes to protecting your business against ransomware. When you conduct a backup, make sure you do it offline where you’re disconnected from any computer. This is important because ransomware and malware can encrypt, corrupt, and delete any of your backups that are easily accessible to them.
Educate yourself and your staff
Although you can use email security devices to filter out fraudulent emails, education is still the best weapon against phishing and other types of scams. Here it’s important for you to use a long, random passphrase – one that’s different for every website. This isn’t difficult to do if you also use a password manager like Sticky Password, Keeper Security, Dashline, or LogMeOnce.
Adopt IoT security
Today it’s becoming quite common for manufacturers, farms, mines, and cities to adopt the IoT (Internet of Things). Before your business deploys any of these strategies, you’ll want to make sure you fully investigate it. This is important because the security behind these connected devices and their sensors play a vital role in delivering the information that these IoT applications require.
Unfortunately, these things aren’t really secure because there’s not much money spent on them. For these reasons, they’re open to many different types of threats like Mirai malware – something that’s infected millions of IoT devices and turned them into botnets (a network of private computers that a group effects with malicious software then uses to send out spam messages without the computer owner’s knowledge). One even delivered a massive DDoS attack in 2016, bringing down the internet for most people on the East coast of America.
Consider advanced threat protection
There are various types of security products that your business can use. For instance, using threat intelligence software will help minimize the risk of outside threats. You can also use EDR (endpoint detection and response) to help with any advanced threats your business may experience – things like APTs (advanced persistent threats).
Keep your system and software up-to-date
Besides privacy features, it’s also important to make sure that your systems’ software is continually kept up-to-date. In the Black says vendors have become really good at quickly patching any security vulnerabilities they come across. Some of the best examples of this have happened with the Spectre, Blue Borne, Meltdown, and KRACK vulnerabilities.
It’s important to remember that things don’t always go as planned though. For instance, when Intel created their initial security updates for Meltdown and Spectre they withdrew them because they caused performance issues. They’re not alone here either.
In fact, Microsoft went through the same thing when they created their first Meltdown/Spectre update for Windows – it made it so that several PCs containing AMD chips wouldn’t boot back up once the patch was installed. Fortunately, most patches work fine and promptly updating your system has benefits that far outweigh the chances you take if you fail to do so and leave your system vulnerable.