The Less Intrusive Your Cybersecurity Plan Is, the More Effective It Will Be

Threats are everywhere in business today. You can quite literally be sitting at your desk actively working in your email and be exposed to multiple scams. With this revelation, it is essential that every organization takes the steps necessary to secure themselves against the immense amount of threats that could put their network and infrastructure at risk, and do so without making it difficult on their staff. Let’s dig into what that takes in this month’s newsletter.

Comprehensive Network Security

Today’s comprehensive network security looks a bit different than it did a couple of years ago. Firstly, the firewalls and antivirus software that is used today are much more advanced than ever, meaning that a lot of the issues that were once major access points for hackers are completely off-limits to them now.

This actually has directly led to the immense amount of scam emails we all endure today. Basically, if hackers can't get in through traditional hacking methods, they will look for the weakest link, which in nearly every situation nowadays are the employees that work at any organization. This means social engineering attacks; and, a lot of them. 

Where Your Employees Fit In

So now that you understand that hackers are now backed into a corner with only social engineering as a weapon, you have to realize that you are in a position of strength. That’s not to say that you don’t have things to concern yourself with, but the last thing you need to do is operate with the overwhelming fear of ransomware or any other cybersecurity issue putting your business in peril. Since there has been this major shift in the way hackers are going about trying to get onto your network, it then becomes imperative that you do what you can to get the tools in place to be most secure and to educate your staff on how to strengthen their cybersecurity awareness. Some of the best practices include:

• Password management - Since the number one way that phishing attacks work is to compromise your employees’ password-protected accounts, having tools in place that will allow you to secure those accounts is a good idea. The password manager not only uses encryption to save all passwords, it promotes the use of more complex passwords with most of them having a password creator. 
• Phishing training - Have a strategy to get your employees in the know about how hackers and scammers try to gain unauthorized access through email. Making certain that they can identify the telltale signs of a phishing attack such as spotting inconsistencies in the messaging, having an understanding how phishing works, and what to do when they do get phished is all-important. 
• Let IT fix IT problems - A lot of today’s workforce have been using computers for decades and have some idea how to troubleshoot problems. This is great knowledge to have, but a business hires IT professionals for a reason. Not only will the IT professional have more experience and perspective on how to fix technology problems, they will also log any troubles so that they can use their cutting edge tools to ensure that these problems aren’t going to reoccur and hurt a business. 

If your business needs some help setting up a security strategy that not only reduces downtime, but also helps proactively keep you from dealing with potentially devastating threats, give the IT professionals at Washington Works a call today at 301-571-5040.