I am sure we have all heard about the sad news of Russia invading Ukraine. However, you might not realise that this could increase the likelihood of your business being the victim of a cyber-attack. This is because the West has placed sanctions on Russia. In the past Russia has used cyber-attacks to retaliate and this could happen again.

In order to keep yourself as safe as possible, the National Cyber Security Centre suggests bolstering your security measures and to follow its guidance on the steps to take when Cyber Security risks are heightened. All businesses are at risk, whether you are relatively small or a large corporation. Now is the time to strengthen your security measures.

 One of the first things we would suggest doing is making sure that you have a working back up in place. This means that if you get attacked by something such as ransomware you will still be able to access your data and files.

Secondly, we would recommend that all your staff are trained in proper cyber security. We know that one of the major causes of a cyber-attack is human error (Read our Email Hijack book!). Training all of your staff will mean that everyone is aware of the most common ways a hacker might try to get into your system. This can prevent a huge number of attacks!

One of the main things that catch people out is not updating your apps and systems. We are all so used to clicking “remind me later” but it is extremely important to make sure that your devices are running the latest updates. We also suggest making use of a password manager for all your employees. This eliminates the possibility of a hacker being able to guess your log in credentials as the password manager will have come up with a long and unique password for everyone. Alongside using a password manger, you should also consider using multi-factor authentication (this is where you get a log in code on a separate device) for an increased level of security.

Finally, make sure that you have an incident response and recovery plan in place. This will allow everyone to know what they should do should they suspect a security breach.

If you have any questions or are unsure that you have the right security systems in place, then do not hesitate to get in contact! We can help.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.