Many of us are still trying to recover from the recent Ransomware ‘WannaCry’ attack that affected almost 150 countries and 4,00,000 machines across the globe. If you were one of the victims and are still contemplating a security and backup solution, you are stretching your luck too much.

According to computer security experts, the first thing you need to identify is – What are the key solutions that you need to implement for making your cyber security strong?

By now, you must be done with business planning, forecast and allocation of budgets for your organization. Nevertheless, you should revisit your plan for data backup and security. My experience in the field of IT management services reveals 3 pillars that are crucial for smooth running of any business operations – Security, Backup/Business Continuity, and Infrastructure/Connectivity. Careful planning and integrating a solution for each of these pillars will help you create a vault like security for your enterprise.

1. Security: 

Keep your business secure from unwanted attacks. Try to follow these small steps to make sure the security of your organisation remains tight.

(a). Keeping a Strong Password Can Actually Prevent Most Attacks

Surprisingly, password protection is still the best thing you can do to enhance security of your accounts and computer access. Facebook’s Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos, has spent most of his career finding security vulnerabilities and figuring out how attackers might try to exploit software flaws. He concludes, two simple solutions you can deploy to protect yourself against pernicious threat, are:

(i) Install a password manager and use it to create unique passwords for each of your services.

(ii) Activate second level authentication option on your email or mobile phone.

(b). Just Because a Device is New, Doesn’t Mean It’s Safe

When you first unwrap your device – a smart phone, tablet, laptop or a computer, it gives you a trust that it’s going to work fine. However, that doesn’t guarantee that the device isn’t prone to security vulnerabilities.

You may have heard that such machines are coming with pre-installed backdoors to prevent you from a ‘freak attack’. But nothing is impossible to breach the security unless you are not continuously monitoring your system network. Backdoor is always a backdoor, and anybody can walk through it, disabling your armour. So reach out to security experts even for new devices.

(c). Even the Very Best Software has Security Vulnerabilities
Many of us think that good software and networks can be completely safe. But sometimes this attitude can lead us to a danger zone as we may not be prepared for the unknown. According to Tabriz (Head of Google Chrome Security Team), information security is more like medicine — a bit of art and science — rather than pure science. That’s because our technology was built by humans, and is being exploited by humans with very unscientific motivations. Securing it would require us to have zero bugs. You should adopt the security policies with a goal to make it expensive for hackers/attackers.

(d). Every Website and App should Use HTTPS
Some organisations have the misconception, “because we don’t process credit card payments, our site doesn’t need to be HTTPS, or our app doesn’t need to use HTTPS”. However, almost all sites on the Web should be using HTTPS, because without HTTPS it’s easy for hackers or eavesdroppers to see exactly what people are reading on your site; what data your app is processing; or even to modify or alter that data in malicious ways.

2. Data Backup/Business Continuity:

What happens to your business when Internet breaks or one of the machines’ hard disk crashes? Cloud Backup service (solutions) are now widely popular and ensure you are able to retrieve data to keep your business running.

(a). Jump to Cloud

Nothing is safe better than you own house. Isn’t it true? But surprisingly in world of data backup, Cloud is safer than your own office server room. Storing your data on the Cloud is sort of like living in that secure apartment building where no one can break in. Switching to cloud is a better choice for Data Backup and Business Continuity.

3. Infrastructure/Connectivity:
It is very necessary to keep the software updated with latest versions, and computers equipped with infrastructure for the continuous growth of the business. These are clearly the tools of running a smooth business operation.

(a). Software Updates are Crucial for Your Protection
It is indeed annoying to get multiple pop-ups on our computer screen, anonymously. Often you have to plug your device in, and the updates can take a really long time. But they may prevent you from being owned by a ransom ware hacker.

(b). Hackers are Not Criminals:
Most people think that hackers are the evil adversaries who want to steal their digital goods. But hackers can wear white hats as well as black ones — and the white hats break into systems in order to get there before the bad guys do. For many such security tasks, organisations need ethical hackers to upgrade their system.

In conclusion, three key things to remember when planning for breaches is – Your computer security plan, backup to manage disaster when it happens, and keeping Infrastructure updated to manage any kind of outages.

If you want to discuss any of these items mentioned in this article and how they can support your business, please contact us on 1300 123 428 or email us at info@ ictechnology.com.au.

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