October Is Cybersecurity Awareness Month

 
Did you know that October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month? As autumn sets in, now is a fantastic time to improve your security posture. All of us can improve our security awareness and practices to protect ourselves and our organizations better. In this spirit, consider the following tips to help safeguard your business data.
 
1. Regularly train your staff. If your employees don’t know what risks to be on the lookout for, they won’t know what to do when they encounter one. With constantly evolving threats, ongoing training strengthens your business resilience.
 
2. Use strong passwords. With so many accounts to manage, remembering passwords can be a real challenge. And while recycling the same password can be tempting, it’s a significant risk. Consider a password manager to streamline password management.
 
3. Use encryption to protect data. A stolen device can spell disaster when it contains sensitive data, photos, or financial details. Always encrypt your devices to render them unusable in the wrong hands. Of course, password-protecting your devices is smart too.
 
4. Don’t overshare on social media. Be cautious about divulging too much on social channels about your daily routine or your upcoming plans. Too many details can help bad actors enact phone or email scams or even steal or vandalize your property.
 
5. Ensure you patch your OS, browsers, and apps. New security threats surface daily. A lot of simple protections come in the form of updates. Set security patches to update automatically in the background so that you never forget to install a critical one.
 
6. Conduct a security risk assessment. Regular reviews help identify and remedy threats. Knowing where your data is, who has access to it, and how you’re protecting it (or not) can go a long way to reducing your risk of a data breach.
 
7. Document policies and procedures. With protocols, you can establish expectations. It’s unreasonable to think your staff will follow best practices without identifying what those best practices are. Creating policies prevents unnecessary confusion.
 
8. Don’t plug unknown devices into your computer. Unknown devices may have malware. The same holds true if you are in a rental car. Be careful about connecting your mobile devices to an unfamiliar vehicle because it could pass a virus to your phone or tablet.
 
9. Confirm requests by phone or email. When you receive a request you weren’t expecting, it’s wise to treat it with suspicion. Verify any unexpected requests by other channels. Call or email the sender to verify the request is indeed legitimate.
 
10. Get cyber insurance. Insurance can help you respond to and recover from a breach. It can be expensive to notify and counsel impacted users. Plus, the spend to recover your data and systems without insurance may be more costly than your business can afford.
 
For further guidance specific to your organization, seek professional cybersecurity guidance. Athreon provides security training, phishing simulations, real-time employee security metrics, dark web scans, security risk assessments, and more. Cybersecurity can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to when you contact Athreon at 800-935-0973 or service@athreon.com.