With recent events in the news, it is important to fortify your cybersecurity in both your personal and professional life to reduce threat exposure. You may have questions and concerns, some of these revolving around cybersecurity:

• Am I more likely to come under cyberattack?
• Is our company more likely to come under cyberattack?
• Are we at greater risk?

Like everyone, we don’t have all the answers, nor can we say for certain what will happen next. What we do know is that, from a cybersecurity perspective, continuing to focus on the fundamentals is key to protecting yourself both at work and at home. While the sense of urgency may have changed, how cyber attackers target their victims has not. Focusing on these three fundamentals will go a long way towards enhancing both your personal and professional cybersecurity position:

Phishing

Phishing and all its derivative scams occur when cyber attackers attempt to trick or fool you into doing something you should not do. Often these scams are sent as emails, but they can also try to deceive you with text messaging, phone calls or on social media. Whenever someone is creating a tremendous sense of urgency and rushing you to take an action, or there is an offer that seems just too good to be true, this is most likely an attack. It is vital that you don’t engage with these messages as doing so can provide an opportunity for the criminals to implant malware and other nefarious software onto your device.

Passwords

Strong passwords are a key contributor to protecting your digital life. Ensure each of your accounts is protected by a unique password with many characters. The longer the password is the better. To keep it simple, use passphrases, a type of password made up of multiple words like “honey-butter-happy”. Following these password protocols can however make it difficult to remember them all. That is why we also recommend you use a Password Manager to securely store all your passwords. Whenever possible, enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on your important accounts to ensure that, should your password ever become compromised, there is still another line of defence protecting your account from the intruders.

Patch Management

It is important to keep your computers, devices and apps updated and current by ensuring that there is an appropriate patch management system in place. Cyber attackers are constantly looking for new vulnerabilities in the devices and software you use. Managing patches to update them appropriately ensures these known weaknesses are remedied with the latest security features for your devices.

It is anticipated that there is going to be an increased amount of false information spread on the Internet. Do not trust or rely on information from new, unknown or random social media accounts, such as posts on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Many accounts on these sites were created for the sole purpose of putting out fake information. Instead, only follow well-known trusted news sources who verify the authenticity of information before it is broadcast.

If you wish to donate to any causes in support of recent events, it is important to make sure you are donating to a reputable, trusted charity. There will be many malicious actors attempting to trick people into donating to fake charities with the goal of instigating cyber-attacks on these un-suspecting philanthropists.

We know that times like these can feel frightening, but we also wanted to reassure and reiterate that so long as the proper safety precautions are adhered to the level of risk can be significantly reduced. Continue to focus on the fundamentals we have outlined, and you will go a long way to protecting yourself, no matter who the cyber attacker is.

Prompt and clear communication is a key first step to navigating through these situations safely. If you have any concerns about your organisation’s security posture, please feel free to contact us on 01 426 3500 or leave your details below and a member of the team will be in touch.

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