A Worthwhile Resolution for 2019
New Year’s Resolutions. We all have them. They often sound something like this:
“This year I’m going to eat less, exercise more, and be a better spouse/parent/employee/person…” and the list goes on. Sometimes we follow through for a week, or even a month. But usually we don’t stick to it for very long.
Well here is a resolution that you can and should be making and sticking to in 2019 for both your personal and professional safety and benefit. It is time to take cybersecurity seriously. With the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reporting 1,027 breaches which includes 57,667,911 records compromised as of November 2, 2018, the statistics are pretty baffling.
Personal Security
Enable 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) whenever possible – This requires a name and password + an additional type of verification needed in order to access private info. This usually simple step of for ex: verification via your cell phone can greatly decreases the chance of a personal breach.
Manage passwords safely – Guess what?! Using your sweetheart’s name and birthdate for all your passwords while perhaps cute is not the smartest (or safest) way to keep your personal data safe. To really keep your information safe, you need to create unique passwords for each of your applications, e-mail, accounts etc. There are many password tools out there that can help keep all of your passwords safely in a single location.
Organizational Security
Risk Assessment – Are you able to make heads or tails as to where your organization is standing from a security standpoint? How well are your data and assets protected? Do we have the right policies and procedures in place to prevent a breach? Performing a risk assessment will provide your organization with an overview of your current security posture so you can then create a security roadmap and prioritize accordingly.
Penetration Testing – There are two major reasons that your organization will benefit from doing penetration testing:
1) Having a penetration test performed on your environment (aka ethical hacking), allows you to see how a potential attacker sees your organization and its vulnerabilities. With security breaches making headlines throughout 2018, now would be a good time for you to check!
2) You are looking to offer your product/services to companies A, B, & C. In most cases, the companies you’ll want to do business with require mandatory penetration testing. Be prepared today so you can sign new customers tomorrow!
Here’s to a safe and productive 2019!