05 May Cyber Security – The Technical Measures

We now know some of the potential methods used to threaten your systems, so you next need to know the technical measures that you can introduce to ensure that your cyber landscape is as equipped as possible to withstand the onslaught of any cyber attacks your business may face.

The technical measures

Firewalls

Firewalls filter traffic passing across a network boundary. The appointed Firewall administrator in your organisation – or IT professional that manages your account (from your provider) – will manage ‘rules’ determining what can and can’t cross that boundary, judged on what factors pose the most risk.

Multi factor authentication

Multi factor authentication allows you to know that whoever is attempting to access your system is actually who they say they are. It requests authentication via another device (via text message or email), which is the quickest and most efficient way to ensure identification. Multi factor authentication can bolster your cyber security stack, and it places security in the hands of your team.

Secure passwords

Passwords are arguably the most important of all security measures. Everyone in the modern world has passwords on one account or another – which makes it perplexing as to why so many don’t use passwords as effectively as possible. The best passwords are almost completely random – they should consist of an unrelated collection of letters, numbers, and other characters, and no part of the password should have any meaning or relevance to the user. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to remember them, and this is why many don’t make them random at all, but passwords must be as long and as complicated as possible for security purposes.

We will now list some key principles for your team – and yourself – to follow in order to guarantee strong passwords:

• The longer the password is the harder it will be to guess. Make your password long, combining a random selection of letters, numbers and characters to make them as impossible to guess as you can.

• Difficulty – If it is too easy to remember then do not use it! Avoid easily guessable passwords with recurring numbers (such as 123, 678), as well as frequently-used words/words that are easily associated with you (eg Petname123).

• Change – Change your password periodically. There is a chance your account has been hacked and the cybercriminal is already operating inside your system.

• Cases – Use upper- and lower-case letters randomly.

Passwords are overlooked for what they really are. They are – by some way – the most important addition to your cyber security stack, as they stand as the first line of defence for your systems against cyber attacks, so they need to be effective.

Anti – malware Measures

Anti-malware measures need to be installed on every system you have; that goes for every device in the office and at home. All systems come with a free version from the manufacturer, but don’t think this is enough because it isn’t – it is not likely to support a business, and your standards of cyber security need to be much higher.

Data encryption

You need to encrypt your data before the criminals do – sounds confusing, I know. You must voluntarily encrypt your own data in order to beat them to the punch. Data encryption is the process of scrambling the readable text of your files and documents so they can only be read by the person who holds the ‘key’ – doing this turns the tables on the cyber criminal, making it exceedingly difficult for them to gain access.

With the knowledge learnt from these two articles, we hope that you feel better prepared to defend your business from cyber threats.

Connecting you to the modern world

Since our conception back in 2005, at Vostron we have operated under a series of predetermined guiding principles: agility, people, and approachability. With those principles adopted wholeheartedly throughout everything that we do, along with our progressive approach in helping our clients to achieve their business goals in the most cost-effective and secure way possible, we are proud to say that we have earned the trust of a loyal customer base across the UK from our home in Southampton. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact to find out how we can help you!