POSTS TAGGED : cybersecurity

The Key to Cybersecurity Awareness? Tell Your Employees to Slow Down

Do you have a cybersecurity awareness training program in your office? If so, what’s the central theme?

How about…slow down.

There are of course many tenets of a successful cybersecurity awareness program, but none more central to stopping human error and negligence.

According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2017 State of SMB Cybersecurity report, negligent employees were the number one cause of SMB data breaches.

Let’s look at why cybersecurity awareness is lacking and what companies can do to address the issue.

Don’t be Patient Zero

It’s not that employees are always aloof about security protocol—they just underestimate the importance of their personal involvement.…

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Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Hackers: A Crash Course in Keeping Your Company’s Data Safe

Hacker-proof

If you ask a group of people what they think of when you say the word “hacker,” you’ll probably get a lot of different answers. Over the years, our understanding of hackers and hacking has shifted. During the computer boom of the 80s, hackers were high-tech spies. Today, we imagine hackers as everything from burglars to vandals to inventors. But what do you as a business owner need to know about hacking to keep your company’s sensitive information safe?

Well, for starters:

  • The who, what, and why of hacking
  • Best practices for keeping your business’s data secure
  • How “good hackers” can help protect your from cybersecurity threats

 

Portrait of a Hacker

What is hacking?

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5 Small Businesses Hit Hard by Hacking

When you think of hacking, you never think it’s something that can happen to you. Hacking sounds too much like a distant headline or a plot line from a show like “Robot.” However, contrary to what you might think, small businesses and startups are actually the ideal target for hackers.

Small business hacker

According to the United States National Security Alliance, 60% of small businesses that fall victim to an online attack are out of business within six months. On average, those small businesses have to pay $690,000 just to clean up a post-hack mess.

Small business website security is often ignored. It’s not uncommon for these companies to focus more on revenue than getting the right protection, especially when running a business with the “it could never happen to me” or “I have nothing valuable to steal” mentality.…

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4 Signs You Have Been Hacked

Massive hacking attacks make global headlines. These incidents typically affect governments and major corporations. Large organizations provide a bigger challenge, a larger payoff and, for some hackers, raises their notoriety in this underworld network.

Small business hacker

Yet, small business computers need extra protection too. Persons with unauthorized access can steal your confidential information, compromise your email accounts, siphon money or enroll your computers in a botnet for use in future large scale attacks.

The following are four signs that should catch your and your employee’s attention.

1. Fake Antivirus Popups

Deceptive antivirus notifications that either detect the discovery of a virus or urge you to download a new antivirus, may be a sign of a compromised system.…

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Security Matters: Keeping Control of Your Site

Cyber attacks have now become a fact of life, and are now something that each and every one of us has to guard against. It’s no good thinking that criminals will only attack the ‘big boys’ – far from it. In fact, smaller businesses are seen as softer targets with weaker defenses to penetrate.

Hacker

In 2016, it’s said that hackers were able to breach half of all small businesses in the US. Worse still, about 60 per cent of small businesses that suffer a cyber security attack are said to go out of business within six months. This is a clear and present danger to the existence of small businesses and cannot, therefore, be ignored.…

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Threats to Home-Based Businesses

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Just because you have a small business doesn’t mean that you are immune to hacking or other cyberattacks, or that you can let your guard down when it comes to cybersecurity. These days, small businesses, even home-based micro businesses, are just as vulnerable to attacks as major corporations, and the effects can be devastating.

Ransomware attack risks

Unfortunately, despite this reality, many home businesses aren’t adequately protected against the biggest threats to their livelihood. While your business may have protections already in place, such as powerful internet security software, firewalls, and encryption, there are still risks of which you should be aware.…

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SEO and Cybersecurity Failures

SEOs are often on the prowl through all areas of the internet looking for the best ways to benefit their client or their brand; and as such, SEOs are often more at risk where cybersecurity is concerned than most general users. And unfortunately, some basic cybersecurity failures are so common that it’s not too hard to find full rosters of problem areas, like the Security Fail Kids published by CBTNuggets.

Security fail kids cards

So, what common failures should any SEO be aware of and on guard for?

1. Not Creating Strong Credentials

Do you have a simple password that you use for just about everything?…

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5 Small Business Cybersecurity Fixes

In today’s world of accelerating technological advancements, it’s almost hard to imagine a small business not using technology. However, as a small business owner, you may find it increasingly difficult to keep pace with current trends. Yet technology is too important a piece for you to leave out of your business jigsaw puzzle. If you do your best to stay on top of technological changes, your business will grow faster, much faster than your competitors in the marketplace. This difference will be on many orders of magnitude.

Cyber security

There is a good reason why tech companies have valuations in millions or billions.…

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