We are all taking the time to wash our hands thoroughly, wear masks, and practice social distancing to protect ourselves. And although it is important for us to maintain our physical hygiene to protect ourselves from COVID-19, it is also important to maintain good cyber hygiene so we can protect ourselves from cyber attackers in this new remote world.
Cyber hygiene refers to the practices and steps that users of different devices take to maintain system health and improve online data security. These operations are often part of a routine to ensure the safety of valuable information that could be stolen or corrupted. Much like physical hygiene, cyber hygiene is regularly conducted to avoid common threats.
The Number of Unsecured Desktop Machines Rose by More Than 40%
As you might expect with the increase in remote workers, there has been a huge surge in the number of remote desktop connections from home to work or in the cloud. According to a Webroot study, there’s been over a 40% surge in machines running RDP (remote desktop protocol).
RDP Brute-force Attacks Grew 400% in March and April Alone
Kaspersky released a report in April showing a huge jump in RDP attacks. All these new remote desktop connections have created a target-rich environment. Because businesses had to make an abrupt shift to remote work and with the rush to continue with business as usual, many had to take some shortcuts with security.
5 Steps to Enhance Cyber Hygiene:
- Enable (MFA) Multi-factor Authentication – MFA strengthens security by requiring additional ways to verify your identity beyond your user ID and password. These added layers guard against phishing, social engineering, and password brute-force attacks.
- Update Regularly – Installing updates across devices, applications, and operating systems on a regular basis is an essential step to achieving strong cyber hygiene. Though it’s easy to ignore updates when things get busy, failure to keep your devices updated can drastically simplify the process for cybercriminals.
- Implement a Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) Plan – BDR is a combination of data backup and disaster recovery solutions that work cohesively to ensure a company’s business continuity. The world is unpredictable, and disaster could strike at any time. You buy insurance to protect your business financially against losses, but insurance can’t replace valuable data and the key applications that your business relies on.
- Empower Your Remote Workforce with End-user Security Training – The most efficient way to educate your employees on how to fortify the human element of your company’s security is through cybersecurity awareness training. For remote workers, in particular, phishing, social engineering, compromised passwords, and weak network security can expose your business to attackers.
- Run a Dark Web Scan – What you don’t know will hurt you. A Dark Web Scan can uncover if your data is for sale, and tell you if your personal or business data may be at risk.
At Biz Technology Solutions we offer a comprehensive range of managed security and IT managed services to meet the needs of any business. If you’re struggling to keep your business systems protected, or if you’ve discovered that you have bad security practices that need attention, contact us today!
