Nibletz Staff
Cybersecurity: unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you know that it’s incredibly important for modern businesses. But the threats to cybersecurity are often very vague.
Sure, we know there are hackers and other cybercriminals out there such as fraudsters. But how do they actually access our business systems? I’m not going to get into the technical aspects of how they do it – this isn’t going to be a coding deconstruction lesson! What we’re going to be looking at here are the features of your business’s IT infrastructure that are most likely to be ‘access points’ for cybercriminals, unless you take the right precautions.
The following mistakes have been found time and time again to be at the root of the vast majority of security breaches in almost all types of businesses.
Obvious passwords
May as well start with the obvious one, right? It’s worrying how many people use their date of birth or the name of their company as their password. One thing that it’s worth remembering here is that someone entering a facility after having correctly guessed a password may not be that easy to prosecute. Entering a password isn’t hacking, after all! Make sure your employees know that all their passwords need to be incredibly hard to guess.
A lack of security awareness
Speaking of your employees, how well-versed do you think they are in the cybersecurity concerns of your business? A lot of business owners may find that their employees really don’t think that much about it at all. They usually just leave all of that to the IT department. The fact is that good security is something that needs to be understood by all of your employees. After all, human error is deadly to cybersecurity! You may want to consider investing in cybersecurity training, though this may be taking things too far for many businesses. Consider developing a short pamphlet or handbook for them to use. (Or, you know, show them this article to get them started!)
Vulnerable software and applications
This is actually the most common reason for cybersecurity breaches – but it’s also the least understood of the lot. Your average employee in you average modern business will probably be using several pieces of software every day to do their job. For many businesses, the desire to cut costs by downloading free or exceedingly cheap software can be understandably strong. The problem is that low-quality software may usually comes with a bunch of exploitable problems. Input validation may be subpar; session management restrictions and password management might be poor, there may be no encryption. This is something you must remember no matter what field you’re in. If you’re in law, for example, then ensure you get the right legal matter management software.
Failure to update system
Here’s one of the biggest problems about cybercriminals: they’re always getting better at what they do. It’s evolution: just as pathogenic cells develop a resistance to things like antibiotics over generations, cybercriminals start to develop ways in which to defeat security systems. You need to ensure that your computers and their accompanying security software are kept up-to-date. Patches are an essential part of the cybersecurity of any business.
