October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month—discover how to better protect your data and devices.

Businesses large and small must be vigilant against scammers, malware and ransomware. Cybersecurity Awareness Month is the perfect time to assess your online safety and take steps to keep your data systems and devices secure.

Unique strong passwords changed often

Long passwords with numbers, symbols and random strings of mixed case letters are the strongest.

You can also create a phrase of unrelated words to create passphrase, such as CatMoonPinkJogging. Vary the capitalization in the passphrase and combine it with numbers and symbols. For example: 78cAtmoOnpinkJOgging3#.

Strong passwords are harder to remember but a password manager can remember them for you.

Create a unique password for every account you sign into. If you use the same password everywhere and one service provider gets hacked, your other accounts would be at risk too. Every website and app you use should have its own password, including your business banking online.

Also, change passwords whenever you learn of a data breach or if you discover malware on your computers or devices. Some cybersecurity experts recommend changing passwords every 90 days.

Use multifactor authentication

Multifactor authentication (MFA) requires more than a password to access an account. It could be a code sent by text or through an authentication app, like Microsoft Authenticator or 2FAS. MFA may also be done through biometrics, like facial recognition or a fingerprint.

Some online accounts have you set up MFA automatically. With others, you need to turn it on. Log into your accounts, look for the MFA option under Account Settings, Settings & Privacy, or a similar menu label, then turn on MFA.

Recognize phishing

Phishing is when a scammer sends an email with a link or attachment that takes an unsuspecting clicker to a website where sensitive information can be entered or downloads malware that can give scammers access to your computer or device.

Businesses are often targeted with fake emails claiming to be about an invoice, ACH payment or a cancellation notice. They can look unnervingly similar to legitimate emails, right down to a logo. Sometimes the hackers even use your own name in the “from” field.

Be wary of email links. If a message appears to be from a vendor you know, go to your browser and type in the URL you know to be legitimate to access your account.

Keep software updated

Cybersecurity is an ongoing battle and astute software companies update their products to address security flaws, as well as fix bugs and improve performance. Turn on automatic updates to keep your software up-to-date.

Also, keeping your computer or phone’s operating system up-to-date helps protect against from viruses and malware.

Back up your data

Even with precautions, cyberthreats can get past your defenses. When you regularly back up your data, you have a way to restore it if you get locked out of your systems by a malicious actor’s ransomware.

Backups can be on the cloud, a physical external drive or both. If you rely on a physical device, store it away from your business. In the event of fire, theft or other disaster at your business location you would still have a copy of your data.

Many experts recommend backing up data at least once each day. At the very least, back up data once a week. If it’s difficult to do this task, set up an automated system.

Train your team

Your employees play a vital role in running your business and protecting your data and computer systems. Create awareness of what they can do to protect the company at onboarding time and with training updates.

At a minimum, ensure that employees know:

• How to create strong passwords and to change them often
• Clues that an email is phishing
• Unauthorized software is not allowed on company computers and mobile devices because it could put the company at risk for malicious downloads and data theft

Find a complete collection of Cybersecurity Awareness Month resources from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency—including tip sheets—here.

 

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