The fact is that hackers are becoming savvier when it comes to finding personal information and tricking not only you, but your friends into providing more. Jere L. Simpson, CEO and founder of Arlington-based KITEWIRE said these days hackers are using social engineering to nab your personal information and use it for mining information, gaining account access and blackmail. Once cyber criminals gather enough information about a person/owner of a company, then they go to work in figuring out details to breach the network. Then you’re really screwed. “Once the intruder steals legitimate credentials, they can move freely throughout the network without setting off any alerts. Their next task is to escalate their privileges to administrator so they can move about the network freely.” For a small startup or business owner, dishing out tons of cash for a high performing network server and IT consultant isn’t a reality when you’re bootstrapping. However, our cyber experts have some advice and inexpensive ways to protect your data from potential threats.
Let’s Start With the Facebook Feed
Taking photos at work to show off the team, work environment or the latest coffee machine is great, but you need to consider what is in the background of your photos, and if are you unintentionally posting personal or confidential information.
Don’t Open The Flood Gates
Reducing the number of people who have administrative access to files, a network, etc. can decrease chances for a breach. It’s also a good idea to have monitor logs to understand who is accessing certain files and online tools.
Newbie Doesn’t Get the Keys to the Kingdom
While founders want to trust that every tech employee is honest, Jere said it’s not a bad idea to gradually ease them into full access of the network. Most importantly, change your network password often enough to avoid any potential problems.
Yes, You Must Change the Passwords
Changing your passwords is the oldest, yet most important, advice any cyber expert can offer you, because it works, so do it. Also, our experts want you and your employees to stop sending your username and password over the network, email or communication tools like Slack. Did I mention changing the password? Timothy recommends conducting privileged account password resets every 30 days. Seriously.
Employees Can Be Your Superheroes
Your employees can be the first line of defense when it comes to thwarting cyber attacks. Take time to educate them on what to look for if faced with a potential threat. This article was written in partnership with Arlington Economic Development. Learn more about AED here. “Talk with your employees and let them know that simple carelessness could result in putting a company out of business. Breaches of customer data or credit card information will result in damage to the company’s name at a very minimum.”
