So many things to be concerned about these days with securing your business and personal assets. From viruses, malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks, how can we protect ourselves. With the rising threats from countries such as China, Russia, and Iran it is important to know how to protect yourself.
Simply put, your first line of defense is education. Educate yourself, your family, and your employees. Without proper training we can easily fall victim to compromised systems. You can add some of the most sophisticated applications and protection measures for prevention, but it only takes one unsuspecting click or providing the right information to the wrong person by accident. This can cause a spiraling affect into your systems. You will lose productivity, hard earned dollars and much more if you do not stay apprised of the rising threats.
PHISHING
I like to keep things as simple as possible to avoid confusion or loss of interest. Phishing is simply like fishing. Bad actors will throw out bait to entice you to bite. Even a nibble can cause catastrophic events. This ranges from convincing you that they are an honest and reputable source. Once they have convinced you, you fall for the bait and click on a link in an email and before you know it, you have provided them with enough information to either continue to phish or launch an attack. Accidents happen and it is important that you report information immediately to prevent further exposer. Reporting and communicating with others when you see suspicious activity is important for continued education on what to look for and how to avoid any further compromise.
There are many other terms like phishing but for the sake of keeping this brief you can be phished by voice, email, social media, website ads, pop-ups and any other means of communication where you provide information to what seems to be a reputable person claiming to assist or help you.
VIRUSES
The term virus has been around for many years. While there are more successful attacks to worry about, virus protection should not go ignored. Systems are still getting infected with viruses intended to disrupt your day-to-day life. Virus protection is and has not been enough to protect you, but it is still necessary to have great virus protection.
MALWARE
Malware is malicious software or a malicious app that contains code to compromise your system. It is highly important to only allow apps and software that have been tested and protected from being re-written or exposed. Everyone loves free software/apps, but what will it cost you if you get hacked? It is equally important to ensure the software and apps you do use are kept up to date and patched when a vulnerability has been reported. Not doing so will put you at risk. Running outdated and unpatched systems will only be a matter of time before something bad happens.
RANSOMWARE
One of the more prominent ways of attack is widely known as Ransomware. By using means above the hackers can take control of all your information and hold it for ransom. This causes extra monetary loss and productivity to businesses and individuals alike. It is now also a federal offense in the US to pay the ransom now, so having proper protection in place is crucial to quick recovery.
PREVENTION/PROTECTION
How do you prevent yourself and your business from cyber-threats? First and foremost, educate everyone. Align yourself with trusted IT Professionals that emphasize on integrity and a genuine mission to help others. Install protective measures such as Backup Solutions, Firewalls, Secure VPN, Intrusion Prevention, Web Content Filtering, and Endpoint Detection & Response systems. Finally, simply having these in place is good but alerting and reporting is a must. Knowing what and how can be a burden. Shepard Technologies offers solutions to fit your needs and we do our best to communicate so that you understand.
#ransomware #cyberthreat #cybersecurity
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