How to secure your companies IT

I’m sure you agree with me when I say that there is not a week that goes by when you don’t see an email or hear about cyber security and how cyber criminals have bled another victim dry of money.

In this article, I’m going to outline the three most effective ways to secure your IT systems in your business and your personal life.

As a bonus, I promise not to make this too technical and you’ll find out exactly why this need not cost a penny.

Number 1: Cyber awareness.

People are by far the weakest link in any small businesses IT systems.  You could invest hundreds or even thousands in a new IT security system, and it could quite easily be bypassed by one of your colleagues that does not have an awareness of what to look out for in a classic phishing email.

Luckily the solution is simple, and it does not involve financial investment.

Time is the only investment.

Just make sure you are running regular lunch and learns with your current technology provider.  This can be as quick as a half hour session to go over the latest threats that may be landing in your inbox.  Your IT/Technology provider will have a good idea of what this looks like as they’re dealing with cyber threats daily and are “in the know” on what to look out for.

Number 2: Enforce multi-factor authentication

Those in the know call this MFA or 2FA but we’re keeping this simple so multi-factor authentication is a little more understandable.  It’s making sure any of the cloud services you’re current utilising are protected with two passwords and not just one.

This is implemented by having a standard password and a secondary password which is authorised by your smart phone.

Running either an app on your phone or a text message that asks you merely to approve/deny the login to your cloud service when you are at the login page.

This is by far one of the best methods to protect against hackers as most hacks over the last 12 months have been to cloud services by cyber criminals pretending to login you into a genuine cloud service.  Without access to your smart phone, they don’t have a chance of bypassing this multi-factor authentication security.

Number 3: Check the backup service.

If your IT systems do become victim to an attack, you may find that the only way to recover your systems is by changing passwords and restoring your files from a backup.

We’ve seen this one too many times to count from new clients coming over to us in the past when a ransom is asked for.

Their current IT provider fails at the most crucial stage and that is by backing up the company data correctly.

While the business may have backup software in place and it’s turned on, no one at the IT company has checked to see if files and data can be restored from the backup.  Such a simple thing that is missed out.

Please make sure that you can restore from a recent backup.

These are just some of the most obvious tips I’ve outlined in this article if you’d like to hear about some other crucial steps you can be implemented in your business that don’t require massive investment then please feel free to contact us.