October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month! As cybercrime becomes more of a concern for individuals and businesses, you should stay up to date with the latest best practices for keeping yourself, your family, and your co-workers more secure online today. Cyber security is everyone’s responsibility, so make sure you’re following these key cyber security practices in your daily routine.
Contribute to the Culture
Creating a culture of cybersecurity is critical for all organizations, from small businesses to large enterprise markets. Even government agencies are keenly aware of how culture can contribute to a holistic cyber security plan. That responsibility must be shared by all employees, not just the leadership.
Use good passwords
Hacker bots are very, very good at looking through the dictionary to find the right combination of letters that a user would choose for their password. As most account users are thinking along very similar lines when creating their password initially, they are falling into a cyber security trap. The new best practice is to make a password that is both difficult to guess but easy to remember. An example of this is the use of a phrase rather than a word. To shorten up the password, but maintain the complexity, use the first letter or number of each word to create a seemingly random but easily recalled password.
Don’t use the same password for personal and work accounts
If you use the same password across multiple accounts, you are not alone but you are putting your corporate data at risk. Sadly, the use of easily guessed passwords is still one of the top entry points for hackers to gain access to personal or sensitive information. If your employees are guilty of using the same password for their corporate accounts as they do for their personal accounts, you are leaving your company exposed and vulnerable to the same level of security that their personal accounts support. Which, in most cases, is certainly not up to the same level of even basic corporate security guard-rails.
Don’t access the network from an unsecured device
Accessing email or a corporate network from a personal device or an unsecured internet hotspot can lead to big problems in terms of data security. Once hackers find an easy way in, it doesn’t matter how strong your security is. Your data is vulnerable. Support your employees by providing them with a strong corporate security policy. Have employees use their password only on secure devices, and not access the corporate network from unsecured Wi-Fi connections, or computers at an internet café or library.
Avoid unsecured hotspots
If you are working remotely, make sure you are not exposing yourself or your company by accessing critical data through an unsecured internet connection, like those at a local library or café. There are so many places to access the internet, but with that convenience comes risk. Be aware of the risk, and reduce hacks by not providing cyber criminals with easy access to your data.
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