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Feature


Business Crime & Protection


Staying secure


in the online world By Philip Ridley, technical director at Omni Cyber Security


It seems that hardly a week goes past without the news headlines announcing the latest victim of the hacking, cyber-espionage or ransomware. While the mainstream media have certainly helped to raise awareness of Cyber Security and the impact it can have for businesses, there is often very little in the reports beyond a few glib comments from ‘experts’, and certainly little to no practical advice for organisations to help protect themselves. So how do you, as someone that has to deal with the


ever present threat of the impending ‘Cyber Apocalypse’, make sure that your business is as safe as it can be from cyber-harm? The first step is - don’t panic. Yes, there are individuals and groups out there looking for ways to exploit unsuspecting businesses, but the reality is that by following a few simple steps you can mitigate the vast majority of the risk.


Training By far and away the most effective step you can take in protecting your business, and your customers’ information, is to conduct security awareness training. Do employees know what a good password looks like? Should they click on that e-mail attachment? Do they know what the acceptable use policy for the business is? Do you even have one? Helping people to understand that they are just as responsible for security as the IT team is a big step towards reducing potential security incidents at your company.


Keep your systems up to date Hackers don’t just magically break into systems, despite what the movies would have you believe! They take advantages of weaknesses in the software


and hardware that you run (referred to as vulnerabilities) in order to get inside. There is a huge community of security researchers who are continually looking for these issues, and will report them to vendors so a fix can be issued. Vendors in turn provide you with regular updates to


fix these vulnerabilities, whether it be for the operating systems, applications or devices you use. By ensuring your systems are up-to-date, you can drastically reduce the risk of a hacker being able to breach your business.


Use Anti-Virus Software Computer viruses have been around almost as long as computers themselves. However they are referred to (Malware, viruses, rootkits, worms etc.) they are essentially designed to do the same thing – perform unauthorised or unwanted functions on your computer.


50 CHAMBERLINK March 2018 Having an anti-virus programme installed on every


computer and server in your business (this includes Apple devices, because they can get viruses to), keeping it up-to-date and regularly scanning for nasties adds another layer of protection to your business.


Strong passwords Another common method for hackers to get into businesses is by guessing ‘easy’ or common passwords, or by trying the default password for any systems they come across. Always, always, ensure that default passwords (the ones that come pre-configured on a system or application) are changed to something different. The National Cyber Security Centre has some great


guidance on passwords; they recommend using a passphrase consisting of three random words. This is easy for users to remember, but difficult for a hacker to crack. Certainly a great deal harder than ‘Password1’...


‘The reality is that by following a few simple steps you can mitigate the vast majority of the risk’


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