We must have Cybersecurity no matter the business.
No one wants the criminal hackers to have a say in our legitimate business. It will not only bring risks into your business; it may even bring unwanted losses or even damage to our reputation.
Cybersecurity is like securing your home every time, whenever, or wherever you may be. Security and safety is not only checking on your doors, your windows or parts of your house that can easily be invaded by unwanted criminals but also making sure that these areas remain locked with a higher defense mechanisms. Also look beyond what may attack or put your house in danger, whether this may be seen or unseen, or at times may be incidental.
Imagine your house is situated on a very busy highway. How do you go about protecting it? How will you manage putting up a higher defense that could secure your house not only of direct attackers, but also of passers-by that might indirectly put your safety into jeopardy? It will be a judgement call on the kind of defense that you choose. A well-thought-of-decision as your defenses should always be up, whether you are awake, asleep or away from your home.
So how do we decide on what to do? If we know that we need it (like a lock in your house or apartment). What kind of lock do we buy? So how do we decide on what to do? If we know that we need it (like a lock in your house or apartment). What kind of lock do we buy?
Is cost a deciding factor? Or is it the integrity and evidence of protection bring more weight?
Enough with the analogies… We have to spend some money on security the question is how much and what do we buy?
Here are some truths that you may want to contemplate on as you decide on what to use for your base security:
- Even though anti-virus software is only 50% effective these days, we have to have some. We have to protect ourselves from all the recirculating old viruses running around.
- We have to have a next generation firewall, as this firewall uses the latest techniques to protect and remove some more unwanted software (malicious software or malware)
- The next step really depends on what you have to defend – if you do a lot of credit card transactions at a retail level with standard credit card machines then you have to place the CC systems on a separate network called a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network).
Cybersecurity must defend everything you use: Windows, Linux, Apple operating systems, firewall, vpn access, data hard drives, the cloud, notebooks, mobile devices, wifi, network switches and more. Small oversight issues in most cases bring about more damage to your business, to your pocket or even your reputation. So, think about these first, so that you can decide conscientiously for your Cybersecurity.
So it depends on how and what you use on whether a higher Cybersecurity posture is needed.
Did you know the hackers are taking advantage of weak defenses with regard to any part of your network. Unfortunately it takes more vigilance than just having IT people on staff. It requires independent review to ensure as much as possible that the devices have defenses up to where they should be.
I say “Grin and Bear IT” to make sure you understand even a review of defenses is important .
We can help you review by using industry established methods within ISACA and the CISA (Certified Information System Audit ) rules.
There are constant new patches for cybersecurity reasons, example: “ROBOT” capitalizes on 19-year old vulnerability and vendors issue patch.
As you see 19years ago a flaw was introduced in encryption software that is now inherent in most software. In the coming days and weeks many vendors will patch their software. If you do not have a system of patching and checking your computer machines.