Home Office Security – Never Too Late to Evaluate
We are past the point of whether or not working remotely, or from home, is something we are unsure of. It is likely our permanent setup, or at the very least, a long term one that we need to move forward with and in confidence. These recommendations should be for readers who find themselves in this situation as well as any IT provider that oversees clients and their cybersecurity.
Community Effort
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) division announced a final directive this week that requires all individual federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agencies to “develop and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy (VDP) for their internet-accessible systems and services and maintain processes to support their VDP.”
Dark Economy
“This pandemic is great for my business!” said very few people.
Unless you’re a hacker. And then it’s likely that business is booming. We don’t think of cybercriminals as businesspeople. We tend to think they are individuals lurking about in hoodies in their basement. Quite the opposite – or so we have found through investigations and the exposure of organizations that steal our information. These are well organized and structured businesses that thrive – or fail – within their own economies.
Is Punishment Proper?
The emphasis on smart cybersecurity practices is vital. As professionals in the IT industry, we know this, we work to ensure policies and procedures are in place that keep the topic at the forefront of every business we support and work within. But while training employees to learn these behaviors is important, there is one aspect of it that isn’t discussed frequently, or at the very least publicly: The repercussions of making a mistake.
Before & After
Imagine if you had two emails that were worth a million dollars each. You would do everything that you can to protect those emails and ensure that no one deleted them. You would back them up, have multiple copies in place so that if you lost those emails, you would have a quick way to recover them. You would make sure that access was limited, with strong password protection, and everyone who had access to the delete button was properly trained on how to open and read the emails safely.
Small Business, Big Risk
There is no way to emphasize enough, just how important it is for small businesses to be prepared for a cyberattack. But according to a recent survey by the Wall Street Journal Pro Research of 400 companies and their security officers, many companies are not taking it seriously enough to improve their readiness and risk of exposure.
Adjusting Your Business Model
New Frontier
The recent conversation with Chris Wiser and Art Gross covered several issues that will continue to be “hot topics” regardless of where we stand regarding COVID-19.
Procedure & Policy
Whether you are going to continue to work remotely or have your team return to an office, the first thing that you’ll want to do is make sure that you do everything that you can to protect your employees and your clients.
Consumer Awareness
The numbers are on the rise – and in this case, we aren’t talking about COVID test results. In just a few months, the number of consumers that suspect they are at risk of identity theft has increased. In February of 2020, we saw numbers from CyberScout that out of 1050 employed adults in the U.S., 52% felt that they would never become a victim of identity theft and 55% were confident that it was “somewhat” or “very” unlikely that their financial accounts would be hacked.
First Aid Kit
When this pandemic hit the world, the realization that most countries were not prepared for this also hit hard at the same time. Here in the United States, and all political opinions aside, we realized that despite our confidence in our economy, in our intelligence, in our standing as a “world leader” we were not ready for what we didn’t see coming. We knew it could happen one day, but it was more the stuff of science fiction versus a real possibility.
Microsoft Teams & GIFs
“Why do I always have to update my software?”
“What is a patch update and why is it so important?”
As an MSP, you know that it is hard enough to emphasize to every one of your clients and their employees the importance of strong security. You also know that keeping track of what they are using in regard to software and hardware is difficult, and even more so with almost everyone working remotely as of today.