Top 5 website cyber security tip

Cybercrime is growing at a tremendous rate; the following tips will help make your online presence more secure and deter cybercriminals. Around a third of businesses were affected last year with an estimated cost of $2.9m per minute to the global economy.

Taking some simple precautions can help you to stop these online criminals targeting your business and stop expensive attacks.

What’s in your inbox?
Over 90% of cyber attacks start with an email. Recently we had an email requesting payment for an invoice from a supplier; the address looked genuine; however, the invoice was unexpected, and the tone made me suspicious. I called the supplier to check the invoice; they confirmed it was a spoof and installed a free SPF and DMARC tool to alert them of future attacks.

Cybercriminals love to be social.
You may have heard of phishing where criminals will attempt to get personal information from you and used as part of a scam. Imagine how much information a cybercriminal can gain from your personal facebook page or twitter account?

This technique is known as “Spear Phishing.” giving the criminal a leg up as they already know some information about you before a phishing attack even takes place. Small and medium-sized businesses are most likely to be attacked using this method.

Now you see it; now you don’t.
Did you hear about the WannaCry attack on the NHS? This attack was responsible for the cancellation of 19,000 appointments at the cost of £92m in May 2018. They are locking users out of their systems in the hope that businesses will pay a fee to have the data restored.

We recommend that you keep your data in the cloud and check with your provider the terms and conditions of data retrieval. Backups are also useful but ensure that you can access them from a clean machine as some viruses like WannaCry and encrypt these also.

Keep an eye on the back door.
The internet is expanding; the number of devices now attached is increasing each day. Each device connected to your network provides an opportunity for a cybercriminal to break your defense’s and attack your data. Many people do not change the default password on these devices to a cybercriminal; this is like leaving a window open and allows easy access to your network.

Free unsecured wi-fi for everyone!
Public wi-fi is never secure again; this is an easy opportunity for a cybercriminal. Free always comes at a cost and accessing the internet via your data services such as a mobile hotspot is much more secure.

Be careful what you access via a public wi-fi service and turn off your business Bluetooth and wi-fi when not in use.

These five steps to help combat cybercrime work in the same way as the physical security on your office or premises. It may not stop all cybercrime, but why make it easy on the criminals?

If given a choice of two shops, one locked up with an alarm and another with an open door and keys to the safe which the average criminal will target?