Protecting Against Ransomware, Malware, and Other Threats

In our previous article we discussed some of the most common cybersecurity threats lurking on the internet. Today, we are going to talk about some of the ways you can protect your home or business from them. The best part is you don’t need to have a degree in computer science to implement any of these cybersafe practices.

It’s as Easy as 3-2-1

The 3-2-1 method refers to backing up your data. There might come a point where the safest thing to do is to completely wipe an infected computer clean and reformat it. If so, you don’t want to lose all of your invaluable digital files. If you’ve had the same computer for a while, there could be years’ of photos, documents and other critical information that is irreplaceable. To ensure that you don’t lose all of that precious data, follow the 3-2-1 rule:

• Have at least three copies of your data
• Two copies should be on different devices (two different hard drives)
• One should be kept offsite (away from home or office)

Although the third step might seem like a bit of overpreparation, not all cybercrime happens over the Internet. In the unfortunate event that criminals break into your home or office and steals your computer or hard drives, you’ll be thankful you kept one of your backups somewhere else.

Restrict Permissions

When it comes to organizational protection, one of the best things that a company can do is restrict permissions on visiting non-secure websites or granting employees permission to download or run software on their computers without being installed by the security team in the company. This will help to ensure that anything that is downloaded onto a work computer is properly vetted by the security or IT department, and helps prevent an employee from accidentally visiting a website that might not be safe.

Beware of Suspicious Emails and Posts

It is always a best practice to delete emails from any sender that you don’t recognize. The same theory goes for online posts — if you don’t recognize a social post, don’t click on it. You or your company should also use email scanning software to detect phishing emails.

Passwords

Your password is arguably one of the most important pieces to keeping yourself protected from cyberthreats, but it is also the one thing that is easy to get lazy about. One easy implementation to protect yourself is to use password phrases instead of just a single word. A password phrase is usually 15 or more characters long. This makes it more difficult for someone to break into your computer.

Scan Your Plugged-in Devices

Anything that you plug into your laptop should be scanned for viruses. Even though your computer is safe, you might be carrying harmful malware or viruses on your hard drive. You can use your computer’s security software to scan external drives before you open them.

Those are just a few of the basic things you can do to protect yourself, or your business from cyberthreats.We encourage you to look deeper into this topic, and put the necessary safeguards in place.