Avoid these 10 CyberSecurity mistakes in 2020: Network Breach

You are NOT Exempt from Online Attacks - 2 of 10

We frequently meet with small to medium size clients that have this false opinion that their business is too small or trivial to be targeted by Bad Guys, hackers, scammers, trouble makers or just general criminals. The fact is that every business, large or small, are possible targets for these criminals. The threat has become such a concern the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a High Impact Cyber-Attack Warning. On October 2, 2019, Alert Number I-100219-PSA describing and warning against ransomware attacks. Read the full alert release here https://www.ic3.gov/media/2019/191002.aspx

Last year a report written by the Ponemon Institute produced a survey of 1000 IT Support providers about the state of cybersecurity in small and medium-sized businesses. It revealed that 67% of their SMBs have encountered a cyberattack while another 58% have had a data breach in the previous 12 months. Another report writes that 60% of all SMB’s that have had a breach fail within 180 days. The breach will cost SMB’s: time, money, loss of reputation, possible fines, network downtime, loss of revenue coming into the business, loss of data and maximum effort to fix what was broken or stolen.

Find out if a business that you work with has been breached …“Oregon law requires businesses and state agencies to notify any Oregon consumer whose personal information was subject to a breach of security. In the event that a breach affected more than 250 Oregon consumers, the law also requires that a sample copy of a breach notice sent to more than 250 Oregon consumers must also be provided to the Oregon Attorney General.”  https://www.doj.state.or.us/consumer-protection/id-theft-data-breaches/data-breaches/

Most of these breaches were preventable. Furthermore, companies that do not manage credit card data or any customer/client information believe that cybercriminals will not target their company network. In truth, the Bad Guys are targeting multiple computer networks to find vulnerabilities, obtain sensitive information, take control of your network, lock your data up and demand financial payment to have it restored or just to cause damage.
The simple fact is if your business/organization has an online presence, you are at risk and must adopt cybersecurity as a business strategy to guard both your stored data and network resources.

Call us, 10D Tech, if you would like to create a technology security plan that prevents the crime and recovers the network/data quickly in case of a breach.

Avoid these CyberSecurity mistakes in 2020: Passwords

It could be stolen customer data, phishing, or ransomware attacks, successful cyberattacks will affect businesses of any size and in any industry. A study last year by Juniper Research exposed that breaches in cybersecurity are likely to result in the theft of over 146 billion records by the year 2023, while identity theft has already affected over 60 million Americans.

It won’t matter if you are offering professional services (Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant), running a local or global business operation, establishing an online presence has now become necessary for recognition and, ultimately, business success. A security breach can destroy a business in a number of ways, including loss of business revenue, client trust, loss of data, fines, penalties, as well as lost income while the breach is secured. 

The continually expanding awareness by word of mouth, media advertisements, social media and direct conversations with security experts about cyber attacks and online threats, business enterprises are investing effort and money into improving their cybersecurity through better tech, training and tools. Still, an analysis of even the most sophisticated online attacks reveals that security is often imperiled by the most elementary mistakes that can be easily fixed by any business, organization or at home.

Poor Password Management

Weak or duplicate passwords are among the first reasons leading to cybercrimes including brute force attacks. A brute force attack opened over 1,000 user accounts due to weak passwords. The bad guys used the company email directory to compromise accounts that had weak passwords. Examples of weak passwords that are still used include “123456,” “password,” and “qwerty.”

What are the best practices in password management that can improve cybersecurity?:

• Use of complex passwords that incorporates alphanumeric and special characters.
• I had LastPass generate the following: 7MG87@o2^VzILBwe I won’t have to remember it as long as I remember a single Master Password for LastPass.
• Enable 2-Factor Authentication (or 2FA) that can be used with strong passwords to safeguard user access.
• We all have smartphones today, setting up 2FA is quick and easy.  Search for the Google Authenticator in the app store and you are almost done
• Avoid the use of the same passwords in multiple business accounts.
• Once bad guys figure out you have used the same PW in 2 accounts they will try them all using your email address or known user name.
• Use of desktop or smartphone apps that can securely store (or even regenerate) passwords instead of writing them down on a post-it or note pad.
• LastPass is what we use, but there are others: www.lastpass.com
•  Maintain the habit of periodically changing passwords for all your accounts.
• The password manager, LastPass, can be used to change many of your passwords with a single click. You won’t need to know what the PW was changed to …. Provided you remember your Master Password to access LastPass.

The next post in our preparation for 2020 Cyber Security Awareness is:   

"Your business is NOT too small to be a target."