Full disclosure: we don’t recommend doing anything important, or really anything at all, on a public computer. However, we understand that sometimes life works out in an unideal fashion, and sometimes you can be stuck doing something you shouldn’t, and otherwise wouldn’t. Even in these cases, there are steps you can take to preserve your security.
What have you watched on TV lately? Actually, never mind; if you don’t want to tell us, we can just ask Vizio. Relax--we’re not actually going through with this, but the fact remains that 11 million owners of Vizio televisions had their viewing habits tracked by the manufacturer. Were you one of them?
Depending on how long you’ve had your current workstation, you might start to see performance problems. Eventually, you’ll start to see issues that could cause downtime and lead to wasted assets. Therefore, you need to have a plan in order to replace your hardware before it fails. What’s the best way to do this without breaking your budget?
Firewalls are one of those things that businesses need, but may not have. They are integral parts of network security for organizations of all shapes and sizes, as well as the average PC user. We’ll discuss what a firewall does for your organization, and why it’s important that you implement one as soon as possible.
How does your business handle threats to its data security? You might think you’re safe, but according to the Ponemon Institute, nearly four out of every five organizations aren’t prepared to fend off threats to their security. This is a major problem, so it should make you question whether you’re prepared to handle the various security risks that could potentially plague your business.
Some organizations have cyber threat intelligence for specific reasons, or one that’s exclusive to only one part of a company’s network. More than one-third of organizations have no way of gathering intelligence, while close to one-fifth claim they have a process for gathering information on network threats. Either way, the results are clear; security is not the priority that it needs to be for the respondent’s businesses.
Due to this less-than-ideal focus on cyber security, the Ponemon institute claims that businesses experience an average of at least one cyber attack every month. These breaches result in costs totaling over $3.5 million annually. You need to assess your organization’s current state of security and consider whether you can afford to suffer from a data breach.
Hint: You can’t.
One of the most dangerous ways that hackers try to harm organizations is through the use of phishing scams. These attempts to convince users to part ways with sensitive information by using an elaborate ruse. By the end of a successful phishing scheme, the hacker will have all of the information they need to access a sensitive network, compromise an online account, or steal the user’s identity. If users can’t tell the difference between a hacker and a normal user, there’s an increased risk of communicating with anyone online. More often than not, hackers are allowed to have their way specifically because organizations either don’t take the threat of a hacking attack seriously enough, or they just accidentally let a threat through their defenses.
The easy solution to this problem can be implemented by any business professional. All you have to do is keep two major points in mind: 1) Implement preventative measures, and 2) Educate your employees on security threats.
If your business is concerned about cybersecurity, Infradapt can help. To learn more, reach out to us at 800.394.2301.