National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024: Best Defence

It’s important that we remain cautious and well-educated about any cyber threats or dangers that we may encounter day-to-day. Halloween isn’t the only frightening thing about October…

In recognition of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October, we want to advise you of the significance of cybersecurity, and provide you all with important hints, tips and tricks to ensure your own cybersecurity safety.

What’s So Dangerous About The Digital World?

In this day and age, it’s difficult — almost impossible — to live and work without the internet. From healthcare documentation to financial information; from personal use to business conversations — we use the internet for many different tasks. However, with this increased usage of the internet comes a wide array of different cybersecurity threats, such as hacking, ransomware, phishing, malware, and identity theft.

Why Is Cybersecurity So Important?

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a solid reminder of the crucial role that cybersecurity plays in all of our working — as well as personal — lives. So, why does it matter? Let’s explore this below:

1. Safeguarding Personal Details: Cyberattacks can put all of your personal details at risk, leading to financial loss and identity theft. Cybersecurity ensures your privacy, as well as the protection of your data.
2. Protecting Your Business: A data breach within a business can be disastrous. As a result, a data breach could potentially lead to financial losses, a loss of customer and client trust, as well as legal issues. With this in mind, cybersecurity is vital for any business. Be sure to have a read of our blog post, which can help you prevent data loss (Data Loss Prevention — DLP) within your business.
3. International Security: With our world now being so interconnected, cybersecurity is also a matter of international security. Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure — which provides the public with their most vital needs — businesses, and healthcare services all around the world can have extensive consequences.

8 Top Tips for Cybersecurity Safety

“What can I do to stop this from happening?”, we hear you ask. Check out our 8 Top Tips for Cybersecurity Safety down below:

1. Powerful Passwords: Make sure that you create complex, unique passwords for every account that you deal with. As well as this, consider using a password manager to keep track of them. We make good use of IT Glue (ITG) to store all of our customers’ important passwords.
2. Regular Software Updates: It is very important to keep your operating system, programs, and antivirus software as up to date as possible. These software updates frequently carry important security patches — this service comes included as standard with all of our Support Agreements.
3. Multi-Factor Authentication: Be sure to make good use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) wherever and whenever possible, as it provides an extra layer of protection by requiring multiple forms of verification, keeping your data safe from potential hackers. We make good use of Duo for our MFA in-house. Read our blog post about Multi-Factor Authentication, where we explore the significance of MFA for your business and why it should be key to your business’ cybersecurity strategy.
4. Back Up All Of Your Data: Instead of just keeping all of your data on your computer system, make sure to also regularly back up all of your data to an external source, such as a hard drive, or a cloud service. In case a cyber attack were to take place, this can save you from any potential data loss. With our Support Agreements, you have peace of mind that we check our clients’ backups on a regular basis.
5. Cybersecurity Awareness Training and Being Careful Of Phishing and Email Scams: Provide your employees with cybersecurity awareness training within your business, in order to create a culture of safety across the board throughout your company. With this knowledge, your business can make sure to remain on high alert for any uninvited emails or messages asking for personal information coming into your inbox. Make sure you know who you’re speaking to before sharing any sensitive data. With this in mind, we can offer an enhancement to Microsoft Office 365 Outlook emails, which means that all emails originating from outside of your business or organisation will be marked as ‘External’. The email itself will also have a reminder, indicating that the email is from an external address. Applying this functionality means that all emails sent from outside of your business will be marked as ‘External’ — especially useful to help identify external emails, which purport to be from a member of your own business or organisation.
6. Use Secure and Reliable Networks and DNS Web Filtering: Avoid using public Wi-Fi networks for carrying out sensitive or confidential tasks, such as online banking. If it is ever the case that you do need to use public Wi-Fi for these types of tasks, consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), providing you with extra privacy, safety and security. A way to make sure that your organisation remains safe and secure online is by implementing something called DNS Web Filtering — a powerful, user-friendly method for managing internet access within businesses. For more information about this, have a read of our blog post — DNS Web Filtering comes included as standard with all Support Agreements, but it’s important to know the details.
7. Sophos XGS Firewalls: Make use of Sophos XGS Firewalls within your business, which is what we recommend for all new deployments. They offer Advanced Cyber Threat Protection, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and more. Read our two blog posts to make sure you’re in the know of all the important information and have all the details — Firewalls: 6 Reasons Why Small Businesses Need One and Sophos XGS Firewalls: Boost Business Security.
8. Secure Your Home Network: Make sure to modify any default router passwords, use encryption, and regularly update your router’s firmware.

Continue To Follow Best Practices

Using the above information, make sure to keep following best practices within your business to ensure your safety, security and protection. Cybersecurity is an ongoing effort, and it is a shared responsibility among all of us — it’s important to continue taking necessary steps to protect your own data not just during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but at all times. By following all of the above recommendations and integrating them into our day-to-day lives, we can minimise the risks of cyber threats and cyberattacks, keeping ourselves safer and more secure. Cybersecurity plays a vital role in our daily lives and is arguably possibly the most essential part of your business. Have a look at our Support Agreements to see how we can further support your business.