Identify Your Most Vulnerable Points
Before you are able to be secure online, you have to make sure that you know where you are most vulnerable. That’s why it’s so important to take a look at all your weakest points and to put procedures into place that can help to keep you secure. If you are not sure where to look, you can hire a managed IT consulting company to help to identify those weaknesses as well as recommend the best protective processes.
Install Anti-Virus Software
As the SolarWinds attack has shown, no business, no matter how big or small, can be truly protected against the best hackers in the world. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try! One of the first lines of defense that you can use to protect your systems is by installing anti-virus software like McAfee or Avast, which is able to identify bugs before they occur to better help you stay safe.
Use Alphanumeric Passwords
It’s an incredibly foolish idea to use a password like the former president did that anyone could easily guess to get into your systems. Your password should never be a word that people can guess as hackers have special tools that cycle through words in order to quickly find the password that they are looking for. Instead, it is a much better idea to use a strong alphanumeric password that is randomly generated and therefore impossible for hackers to guess.
Use a VPN
Another layer of staying safe and secure online is through using a VPN like ExpressVPN or NordVPN. Standing for virtual private network, it allows you to scramble your IP address, meaning that you can ensure a higher level of privacy and security when you or your colleagues are browsing online. It also means that it is harder for hackers to get into your systems as they will find it harder to get onto your exact IP address.
Don’t Open Mail From People You Don’t Trust
With employees in the modern business world receiving tens of emails a day, it might be natural to simply open up every single one that arrives in order to see what any potential client is saying. This should be something that employees should actually approach with a high level of caution. Phishing emails are on the rise, and they do attack people in professional businesses. That’s why, if you don’t trust an email that has landed in your inbox, it’s best to simply leave it alone.