It usually happens slowly. You buy a basic antivirus program when you first open your doors. A couple of years later, someone sells you an email filter. Then maybe you pick up a separate firewall box because a compliance form asked for it.
Before you know it, you're running three or four different security applications across your office terminals that have never spoken a word to each other (and couldn't if they tried).
Picture this: one of your employees is working on a sensitive document, and a client or vendor suddenly walks up to their desk. Do your employees know how to hide their screens and protect that data in less than a second?
Physical security is just as important as a strong password. Leaving your screen wide open when you step away—or when someone drops by unannounced—is one of the easiest ways for important data to slip into the wrong hands.
Modern cyberthreats are genuinely terrifying to consider. It might seem best to lock down your network to the point where someone would need an authentication code to open every window.
Here is the problem: If you make your security framework so restrictive that your employees feel like they are being micromanaged by an algorithm, two things happen. First, their productivity plummets. Second, they will actively look for ways to bypass your security just to do their jobs.
Corporate wire fraud routinely stems from a breakdown in operational procedures rather than a failure of firewall technology. Consider what happens if your billing department receives an email from a primary vendor requesting an immediate change to their banking routing numbers. The communication features flawless branding and a highly polished tone. Without rigorous validation processes, accounting personnel frequently accept these altered requests at face value, resulting in severe financial losses. Managing this risk requires a strategic combination of robust digital defenses and non-negotiable operational workflows.
Small businesses regularly invest thousands of dollars into sophisticated digital defenses—centrally managed firewalls, enterprise email filters, and endpoint software protection—to keep hackers out of their networks. The problem is, many of those same organizations leave their physical network hardware completely exposed. It is common to find main network switches sitting on open shelves in shared spaces like copy rooms, or located in server closets that are left completely unlocked.
Employees are the largest vulnerability in any business network. A single mistake by a staff member can bypass established security infrastructure. Cybersecurity is an organizational culture requirement rather than a purely technical one. Protecting a business requires educating the staff on how to identify and avoid digital traps.
It’s not uncommon for your office visitors to need access to your wireless network. Whether it’s a client or a contractor, you want to make things convenient for people, but not at the expense of your network’s security. After all, how can you know their devices aren’t infected by a malware that can spread to your network and impact operations?
Think of your employees as the front door to your business. You can have the most expensive deadbolt in the world—your firewall—but if your team keeps leaving the keys under the mat, the deadbolt doesn't matter.
Most security breaches aren't the result of a mastermind hacker bypassing your code; they happen because an employee was just trying to be productive. Here are the three most common accidental threats facing your business and how to fix them.
Regardless of how productive your well-oiled business machine is running, you might stop and ask yourself, “Am I doing everything I can to keep my business safe from a cyberattack?” Threat detection and response is nothing new, but managed detection and response—the act of outsourcing this responsibility—is an innovative and effective way to keep your business safe. While standard cybersecurity solutions like antivirus and firewalls are still necessary, they are passive at best.
Free Wi-Fi is a business tactic that many organizations use to get people in their doors, particularly service industry businesses that offer food, drink, or products. That said, how much can you actually trust the free wireless they provide? You want to avoid connecting to just any public wireless network, as doing so could put your devices at risk.
When you hear about the dark web, you might picture extremely shadowy figures and illicit dealings going down. While that's part of it, for businesses, the dark web is a real threat: it's where your stolen data is shared and sold. In cybersecurity, this means understanding the hidden currents of the Internet, not just what's visible on the surface. Today, we will take a look at the dark web and why monitoring it is a good idea.
IT security, while a critical topic to consider, can often be dry and challenging to communicate. We decided to change things up a bit and present this information in a different format to keep things fresh, putting together a simple soap opera to share these lessons instead. As such, please imagine soft strings playing in the background and a soft filter over the scene.
Data—ones and zeroes in sequence—runs the world… even in the quiet town of Oak Falls. Let’s check in on the residents of this little town, but beware. Threats exist even here, so make sure you’re keeping a close eye on… All My Data!
Cybersecurity is a big deal for both individuals and businesses. With hackers and data breaches constantly making headlines, strong security is more important than ever. That’s where cybersecurity consultants come in. Let’s break down how they help keep systems safe.
Smart devices have found their way into most businesses' IT infrastructures, as they offer convenience and efficiency that others do not. However, they also bring with them a certain security risk. These Internet of Things devices do not have the same security features as their business-grade counterparts, making them ideal targets for hacking attacks.
We’ve spent several weeks discussing ransomware's impact on various subsets of everyday life, including how it has affected customers and businesses. Today, we want to highlight the impact of ransomware on society in regards to economics and geopolitical security.
With the advent of streaming media, more people have access to entertainment than ever before. They watch real stories unfold right before their eyes through the lens of a documentary or biopic, offering perspectives that they might not have otherwise gotten had they engaged with the story through a different lens. These dramatized documentaries can be remarkable wellsprings of information, and you might be shocked by how much you can learn just by committing a couple of hours of your day to one.
As business computing goes, ransomware poses the most significant threat. That’s why it’s imperative for organizations to proactively address this menace head-on. Today, we propose a comprehensive three-part strategy that can help your organization sidestep ransomware.
Ransomware is a real problem; I mean, a real problem. Not only does it create serious problems for any organization that is victimized by it, it is about to be a completely pervasive problem for everyone. It is extremely important for your organization to take the threat of ransomware seriously by implementing a strategy to keep it from being an issue. Today, we offer a three-pronged approach to doing just that.
It’s easy to think of email as something that just works. You open up Outlook or log into Gmail and your mail is there. Most people aren’t even aware of the vast, complex set of systems required for email to even work—and we don’t blame you. It’s extremely complicated.
That being said, if nobody is actively managing your email, providing protection for the underlying technology, and making sure that it was and remains configured properly, it’s possible that your email could be working fine while opening you up for unseen threats.
Cybercriminals aren’t looking to play fair against businesses. They don’t care how big or small you are, they don’t care about what services you provide, or what good you offer for the community. You could be a children’s hospital or a single mother selling homemade mittens out of your dining room, you could be a school, an assisted living facility, or a Fortune 500. Either way, your organization is an equally viable target for cybercriminals.