October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! The goal is to raise awareness about important cybersecurity issues that threaten us. It’s an issue of personal accountability and being proactive in protecting your personal data. If you’re a business owner, this issue expands to protecting your personal data, the data of your employees, and the data of your customers. We’re sharing a few tips on how to help keep your data safe from hackers.
- Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible. This helps to ensure that you’re the only person who has access to your accounts.
- Get creative with your passwords. Avoid proper nouns and phrases. The addition of special characters will also help your password strength. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency put together a great tip sheet on how to create a strong password.
- Before you open any links or attachments in an email, make sure you recognize the sender’s address. Phishing scams will trick victims into giving up sensitive information.
- Install anti-virus software on your computer and always keep it up to date.
- Update your computer software as well. If you aren’t updating your computer software regularly, you’re leaving it susceptible to cyber-attacks.
- When you download an app to your phone, it typically asks for permission to access your phone’s data. Only download apps onto your phone from developers you trust. Given the permission, these app may track and record data you don’t want them to have.
If you own a business and are handling personal data, cyber liability insurance is an option you should consider today. Cleaning up from a data breach can be extremely costly. Contact us today and ask about cyber liability insurance.
