3 Ways to Improve Your Cyber Security

3 Simple Cyber Security Steps

1. Firewalls

• Ensure your firewalls are turned on
• Use a firewall on your router, networks and devices
• Configure your firewall

Most computers have a built-in firewall that acts as a buffer between the device and external networks. However, it is easy to assume that a firewall is turned on by default or sometimes to have 2 firewalls that are conflicting each other. Verify that you have a firewall active on all devices, networks and routers and ensure that they are configured correctly.

For workplaces, firewalls can be configured to include or exclude specific networks or websites to add an extra level of protection to company devices. This can be as strict as only allowing users to access an internal intranet or restricting specific websites such as those used for social media.

2. Email Security

• check the full email address and domain
• don’t just rely on the displayed email name
• Never click a suspicious or unverified link
• Never open a suspicious or unverified attachment
• Train staff to identify phishing emails

Phishing scams are growing increasingly intelligent! Ensure that you and your employees are aware of what constitues phishing. Never click links in an email, unless you are sure they are genuine and have come from an expected and verified source. Some forms of phishing are obvious scams and can be spotted immediately. However, ones disguised as an email from your bank, a business supplier or the HMRC can look very convincing!

Cyber attackers and scammers often set the ‘from’ email display name as something you would recognise. For example, an email may look like it is from the ‘HMRC’. However, when you hover over the email display name, you can see that the domain name is different from the authentic site.

Cyber criminals are clever and will often set up an email address with minor changes to the original. A busy office worker could easily mistake donotreply@hmrc-tax.com for a genuine email from the HMRC. It takes minutes to click a link and input sensitive information into a fake, but very real looking, website. Unfortunately, it can take weeks or even months to recover from such a mistake.

3. Anti-Virus & Malware Protection

• Install malware protection on all devices & servers
• Use approved anti-virus software
• Configure mechanisms to run a daily scan

It is often said that prevention is better than cure. In terms of cyber security this is a well established fact. Protecting your devices and networks from being accessed in the first place is much easier than trying to repair the damage once it has been done.

Networks, servers, desktop computers; laptops, tablets; smartphones and any other device should have virus and malware protection. There are a large number of free software options for basic security. Likewise, for larger organisations or those handling larger volumes of customer or personal information, there are many paid security options to detect and isolate malware.

Installing malware protection on your devices is straightforward and usually comes with some standard settings to get you started. Many mechanisms also detect malware before you even know it is there!