Security threats are coming at your business from all directions: employees using coffee shop WiFi to access your secure intranet, poor password decisions and even the potential of malicious actors with an interest in your business data. Maintaining a high level of security in your business requires ensuring that you’re utilizing best practices in cybersecurity, which are morphing on a regular basis. Are you covering all the potential ways that your business could be negatively impacted by poor cybersecurity both desktop and mobile devices?
The Shifting Cyber Threat Matrix
Hackers are becoming a bit more particular in selecting their targets. While this may reduce the number of attacks that your business will experience, attacks that do target your organization will be much more sophisticated than brute force attacks in the past. According to ZDNet, these cybercriminals are looking for ways to reduce the risk that they are caught, and that means becoming more cognizant of the information that they’re putting out into the world. Spear phishing and whale phishing, where cybercriminals access social media profiles and business information to learn more about your key staff members to more effectively target specific individuals, proliferate in the business world.
Best Practices for Mobile Device Security
Protecting mobile devices used by employees has never been more challenging — or important. Staff utilize a variety of mobile devices from their smartphones to tablets and laptop computers. The steps required to protect laptops and desktop computers are relatively well-known, but the same strategies are not guaranteed to work on more portable technology. From different operating systems and the perception by employees that their mobile phones are “safe” from being hacked, it’s crucial that you educate your team members about appropriate security for their cell phones and other small mobile devices.
How Tablets and Smartphones Are Infected
While downloading anything from a third-party app store is not recommended due to the potential of malware, your smartphone or tablet can also be infected by a drive-by download — what happens when you click an infected link in an email or on a website without the proper level of security. You may not even be aware that something is wrong, as the malware lurks in the background of your mobile devices until certain conditions are met. Here are some tips for keeping your mobile devices safe online:
- Quickly install software updates as soon as they become available. Yes, there can be unexpected side-effects such as changed functionality that you didn’t expect, but software updates for mobile phones, tablets, desktops and even smart TVs help protect your electronics.
- Extend your desktop security protection to your smartphone and tablet. Your devices are just as vulnerable to attack as a desktop computer, making it extremely important to maintain full anti-virus support active for any and all devices.
- Beef up your security by creating a lock screen password that is challenging to guess. Simple patterns and words are guessed too easily by cybercriminals. Be sure you’re using advanced password recommendations to stay safe online.
Protecting your business starts with understanding the various threats that can occur. At Coretelligent, we not only provide best-in-class, proactively managed IT services, but our team is also always looking for ways to educate our clients on cybersecurity and other important technology topics. Contact us today at 855-841-5888 for a free initial consultation or fill out our online form for a quick response.
