Cyber security can be a rather technical and complex subject. It is often seen as a cat and mouse game pitting computer wizards from both the black hats and white hats sides. Many people that, it isn’t the realm of average computer users. But, this is a wrong assumption. In many cases, human errors are often considered as the most common causes of data breaches, instead of hacking. It means that cyber security is more than just about preventing hackers from intruding our system, but also about adopting proper data usages. In this case we should be more aware about proper data security. Scores of clients lose their data due to human error factors.
Cyber security can be caused by mistakes that large and small businesses do. Many small business owners think that their organizations are too small to be targeted by data thieves and hackers. As a result, they could employ minimal cyber security solutions and in some cases, these professionals ignore them altogether. On the other hand, large businesses could spend millions of dollars to prevent data intrusions. They may implement biometrics technology and various sophisticated technological solutions. In this case, it is clear that cyber security is much more than just about removing key loggers and Trojans.
Passwords are often seen as a security tool, but they could also become security risks. In this case, ignorance and laziness in handling passwords could cause huge vulnerability. These days, it can be a pain to deal with dozens of passwords, as an average computer users could be registered to many accounts. However, in this risky digital world, we should follow some basic password management methods:
No shared passwords
This is a common mistake. Because we have so many accounts in different websites, it could be much easier to use only one password for all of them. Each account should have their own combination of unique password and user name.
Complex passwords
In this case, we should make sure to use a complex combination of numbers and letters. It means that we shouldn’t use a couple of plain words, because we will be vulnerable to dictionary attacks.
Change passwords
Changing passwords can be quite annoying for many people. This could be quite aggravating for many people. In this case, we should periodically change passwords to prevent any kind of misuse.
In order to improve security, we should perform automatic updates. Unpatched operating systems and antivirus software could make us incredibly vulnerable. We will be easily targeted by bad individuals who plan to steal our data and hijack our account.
In many companies, it is important to create policies and this could be a legal liability for many employers. In this case, we should make sure that these rules can be implemented easily. We should make sure that these policies are appreciated and easily understood. Employees should properly care of their portable storages. Subcontractors are major vulnerability and we should make sure that outsourced workers take the necessary steps to comply with our company policies.