How to protect your servers from cyber threats
On a daily basis, battles rage over the internet between money-hungry black hat hackers and cyber security experts, the latter of which endeavor to keep data entrusted to them safe.
They employ a number of strategies to achieve these ends, from making use of the services that user behavior analytics companies offer to keeping all software patched and up to date.
Wondering how you can do the same for your company? This post will analyze the various ways you can guard your servers from all the factors that threaten them.
1) Make sure all software is kept updated
Despite what some think, software is far from being bulletproof. Everyday, hackers find new loopholes to exploit in the programs you love and trust.
Thankfully, many of these code crackers are white hat in nature. Employed by software creators in order to find vulnerabilities in their products, they regularly patch them and provide fixes that users can install to prevent intrusions by malicious actors.
Don’t delay on this step, though. Black hat are seldom far behind the white hats, meaning that those with bad intentions will be probing for these weaknesses before you know it.
2) Keep a close eye on all network users
Frequently, leakers of confidential information aren’t external hackers who somehow smashed through your firewall – they are disaffected employees who see opportunities to profit off info contained with your servers and perhaps get revenge at the same time for some perceived slight.
When you contract a user behavior analytics company to set up a tracking system, spotting trouble behavior becomes easier, as there are specific signatures that indicate when someone is stealing something from you.
When this happens, the IT administrator like the ones from IT services Irvine will be notified automatically, allowing them to take action to stop the intrusion before they can do serious damage.
With the exact employee often being identified by these systems, you can terminate them and take legal action if they are found to have done something criminal.
3) Set better passwords
Firewalls won’t do anything for you if employees use their first name as their password. Accordingly, it is vital to craft a password policy that emphasizes complexity.
All passwords should be 8-12 characters in length (any shorter, and they are easy to brute force – any longer, and they will be forgotten easily) with a mix of upper and lower case letters, and with at least one symbol and number.
4) Teach your employees about phishing attempts
From e-mails threatening the closure of a bank account to a convincing voice on the other end of the line that persuades you to give up sensitive information, phishing is one of the biggest security threats businesses face these days.
Manipulating the fear, good will, and trust of others is shockingly easy, which should hammer home the importance of teaching new hires and existing employees about phishing attempts and how to defend against them.
Take an entire day to go over this method of crime, as all it takes is one breach to irreparably damage the reputation of your company.