Twenty-first-century businesses must continue to contend with the ever-evolving nature of the digital landscape as it becomes an increasingly crucial fixture of an array of modern industries. In this digital age, it’s essentially unheard of for businesses not to have an online presence. In fact, many sectors have embraced social media and other digital platforms as genuine assets to their business. It’s important to note, however, that if your organisation neglects its cybersecurity measures, the world wide web can be just as much of a curse as it can be a blessing.
Here are four easy ways you can keep your business secure in this rapidly changing digital age.
1. Always use a VPN
A VPN (or virtual private network) is basically a service that allows you to access the internet without having to disclose your IP address, your Internet Service Provider (ISP), or even your geographical location. Many tech-savvy individuals use VPNs specifically to access content online that would otherwise be locked to particular regions.
Of course, using a VPN can provide so many more benefits than just easy streaming. They basically work by encrypting all of your personal data and allowing you to access the internet through an encrypted tunnel. When hackers come across a VPN, they basically cannot see what device you’re coming from, where you’re coming from, and what information you may be sharing online. This is why VPNs are recommended for both workplaces and personal devices, as they can be a hassle-free way of ensuring your online shopping and any other transactions or sensitive information stays nice and private.
Because of their wide use in the IT community, it’s common for some servers and web services to offer free VPNs as incentives for new customers. As VPNs can differ depending on which provider you use or where your server is based, it’s worth doing some research to find a VPN that best suits your needs.
2. Invest in virus protection and anti-malware
With the exponential rise of digital fraud cases across the globe in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, virus protection and anti-malware software is becoming a fixture in workplaces and households, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! In essence, antivirus protection can help stop potential malware in its tracks and can also actively alert you to any potential dangers as you browse through the web, ensuring that you are far less likely to fall victim to a myriad of digital threats.
If you’re looking to obtain some antivirus protection for your workplace, it’s worth selecting a protection plan that includes additional services like email encrypting and adware protection. You’ll also want a plan that caters to a number of different platforms to ensure that all devices across your network are covered.
3. Be prompt with software updates
As it’s becoming commonplace for a lot of aggressive malware to utilise machine learning as a means of development, more and more cybersecurity experts are working hand-in-hand with programmers to ensure that app or software updates also work to keep users protected from the nastiest digital threats.
That’s right! App updates are now about so much more than just fixing bugs and improving the particulars of the app’s UX. In this day and age, staying up-to-date with your updates has never been more important. Thankfully, with automatic updates available across all platforms, it’s also never been easier. Enabling automatic updates on all the devices in your network can help support your antivirus protection, and other software do what they do best: evolve alongside malware in a fight to keep them out.
4. Utilise Multi-Factor authentication
Any IT professional can speak at length about the importance of regularly resetting your passwords, as well as using a string of alternating characters rather than solid words (i.e., don’t make your password ‘password’). For a lot of industry professionals, using complicated passwords is foundational, as is the practice of using multi-factor authentication (MFA), also often referred to as two-factor authentication.
Simply put, multi-factor authentication is the practice of using multiple channels of identification, so a password is paired with an SMS code or an email verification request. Using multiple channels of identification is an elegantly simple yet incredibly effective way to deter potential hackers, as it makes your systems that much more difficult to breach. In essence, MFA is a low-cost, easy-to-use method of adding a hefty level of extra security on top of any pre-existing cybersecurity game plan that your organisation may already have.
If you’re working in security, finance, or other sensitive industries, chances are your organisation is already practising multi-factor authentication. If this is the case, it’s worthwhile ensuring that your staff understand exactly how valuable this security practice can be, and encourage your workplace to revisit your MFA as well as pre-existing passwords to ensure that these valuable practices don’t stay static and are thus, more likely to be effective.
As you can see, staying secure in the digital age doesn’t necessarily need to cost your organisation an arm and a leg. Whatever cybersecurity game plan your organisation chooses to implement can always be adapted to suit the evolving needs of your business.
Interesting Related Article: “An Urgent Business Priority: How to Improve Your Cybersecurity in 2021“
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