Why Small Business Cyber Security Matters

Big changes to Australia’s Cyber Security laws this month

February 2018 we will see a change in the laws that affect our personal information. The new law will require all businesses turning over 3 million

dollars or more to report any data breach to the public as well as the office of the Information Commissioner.

What does that mean for you and your small business? It means that if you don’t have a full time I.T employee you will need to

The first thing we suggest is checking out the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Essential Eight. The ASD is responsible for protecting Australia from IT security threats. They also have some practical, common sense rules for making sure your IT systems are protected against hackers. Of the eight guidelines, the top four are a priority.

Get a Whitelist
The first is to check your application’s whitelisting. Whitelisting means that only approved applications can run on your systems. There are dozens of ways hackers can get into your systems, one of the common ways is through malware, that is installed without you knowing. A whitelist is simply a list of allowed programs. That means that malware simply cannot run on your system if it is not on the Whitelist. Whitelisting can be done through a number of different security software’s. For more information or if you need help with your IT security contact Stellar Tech today.

Patch It Up
Another important rule is to patch all applications and operating systems. What does that mean? Basically, a ‘patch’ is an update for a software that fixes a known security hole. Generally, these patches are included in software updates and quite often happen automatically for you. If you are concerned about whether or not your software has be patched, simply look at the update records – usually found under the ‘about’ tab or in the preferences depending on the software.

Passwords are key
Probably, the most common way for hackers to gain access to your system is through weak passwords. A recent report found that 80 per cent of hacking-related breaches came down to stolen or weak passwords. This is an astonishing figure.
So what can you do to stop hackers from getting in with your password? There are a number of third party companies out there that offer password management, in fact password management software is becoming more and more popular.

We can’t stress enough how important it is for you change passwords on things like computers, tablets and WiFi routers. Change it to something that someone would have a hard time guessing don’t use your birthday or dogs name. We recommend using the Password Strength Tool to test how secure your password is. You might be surprised at how weak a password you consider to be hard actually is.

Backup, backup, backup
Protecting your systems also means protecting files from ransomware and similar threats, such as a hardware failure or the network going down.We recommend a good cloud-based backup solution. The best thing about cloud backup is that it is offsite, secure and up to date. You don’t need to worry about which hard drive has the backup data or which files you haven’t backed up for a while.

As well as the tips we have provided, a strong, updated and premium Internet Security Software is essential. We advise not to use a free Antivirus / Internet Security Suite. Mainly because we do not fee that they provide an adequate amount of protection. Don’t forget the old saying… You get what you pay for Security software is no different.

While protecting your computer systems against hacking isn’t easy for any business owner, there are things you can do every day to make sure you’re not a victim. and if in doubt, please feel free to call or Email us today to book in an IT Security Audit for your business.