5 Cybersecurity Habits: protect against cyber incidents

Verification

Malware, alongside computer security threats, are what makes the internet and malicious and high risk landslide, posing risks to many organisations each year. Employees have utilized software that has not been verified or authorised by the employer, resulting in relentless malware infections within cyber security, which can lead to financial loss and reputational damage. These are serious security issues. Previous methods of handling such issues have been rendered useless, with the surge of Shadow IT. This refers to the IT projects implemented within an organisation’s walls, without organisational approval. An example of this is blocked access to specific applications for employees, such as social media. As a way to side step this, other riskier applications will be used in their place, creating a security risk. The ever-present risk of installing malware is increasing due to cybercriminals becoming more devious in their attack points. Always consult and get verification to solidify security protocols to avoid a data breach.  

Confidential Credentials

Close to 50% of employees have openly admitted to sharing their organisations login credentials. One of the most significant security breaches in organisations is the sharing of passwords, and yet it is one of the least managed and thought about security risks. Being ignorant to the dangers sharing strong passwords presents, only causes greater risk to the organisation. By eradicating these bad habits, password manager will be stronger and more secure. 

Company and Personal Cloud

Personal cloud-based storage such as Google Drive and Dropbox, are often lacking in security protocols, audit and compliance features, leading to data breaches and cybersecurity disasters. Due to employees uploading company information onto personal cloud services, the reality is that the company's information is then at greater risk, and should be kept on the virtual private network. Organisations who allow employees to use personal devices for work purposes, need to set out set policies and procedures, such as multi factor authentication, to reduce this security risk.  

Cautious with Email

There are multiple risks associated with email technology. Individuals are targeted by fraudulent emails on a daily basis. Verizon noted that 30% of said emails are opened and 12% of those move forward to interacting with malicious links or attachments. Tips for staying aware of these issues are: 

• Keep a look out for misspelling, inconsistent fonts, mismatched or unusual domain names. 
• When receiving an attachment via an unsolicited email not recognizing the sender, do not open it and to be safe, delete the email.

Virtual Private Network

In the present day, everyone is looking to maximize their privacy wherever possible. One way to do this online is to use a VPN (virtual private network), to stop any monitoring of your online behaviour. When connecting to a network, your device delivers unsecured data directly over the internet, sharing a unique IP address that pin-points that specific device, alongside its locations. This sharing of data is often unencrypted, leaving it open for anyone monitoring that traffic to observe all sites visited. Using a VPN will interrupt this connection, and if partnered with the ‘incognito’ mode on a browser, you can maximise your online privacy and its presence.