As we reach the midpoint of the year and the beginning of the new financial year in Australia, it’s the perfect time to reassess your cybersecurity measures and ensure that your home and business are well-protected against emerging threats. Cybersecurity is an ongoing process, and staying vigilant is key to safeguarding your valuable data and assets.
Why a Mid-Year Security Checkup is Important:
- Emerging Threats: Cyber threats evolve constantly. New malware, phishing techniques, and vulnerabilities are discovered regularly. A mid-year checkup helps you stay ahead of these threats.
- Compliance Requirements: Many industries have compliance requirements that mandate regular security assessments. Staying compliant can prevent legal issues and potential fines.
- System Updates: Regularly updating your systems and software patches is crucial to closing security gaps. Relying solely on Apple and Windows for patch management can fall short of what is required, as they may not cover all third-party applications or respond quickly enough to new vulnerabilities. Comprehensive patch management ensures all updates are current and applied across your entire software environment.
Key Areas to Focus On:
Backups: Regular backups are essential to safeguard your data against ransomware attacks, accidental deletions, or hardware failures. Remember, having a Microsoft account doesn’t mean you don’t need a backup solution. Ensure your backups are frequent and stored securely.
Patch Management: Keeping your software and systems up to date is critical to protect against vulnerabilities. Regularly apply patches to close security gaps that could be exploited by attackers. Comprehensive patch management goes beyond the basic updates provided by Apple and Windows, ensuring all third-party applications and critical vulnerabilities are addressed promptly.
Analysis of DNS Traffic: Monitoring DNS traffic helps identify malicious websites and prevent access to them. Implementing tools to analyze DNS queries can protect your network from cyber threats.
Whitelisting and Ring-Fencing Applications: Whitelisting ensures that only approved applications can run on your systems, reducing the risk of malware execution. Ring-fencing further contains applications, limiting their access to only necessary resources.
Mobile Device Management (MDM): MDM solutions help manage and secure mobile devices within your organization. They ensure that all devices comply with security policies and can remotely wipe data if a device is lost or stolen.
Email Filtering and Backup Solutions: Implementing email filtering solutions helps block phishing attempts and spam. Additionally, having an email backup solution ensures that important communications are not lost and can be recovered when needed.
Password Management: Use a password manager to create and store strong, unique passwords for all your accounts. Ensure all your passwords are at least 21 characters long and randomized with alphanumeric characters.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Ensure that two-factor authentication is enabled for all your online services. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of verification.
Firmware Updates: Make sure the firmware on all computers, wireless access points, switches, and routers is updated to the latest version. Firmware updates often include important security patches.
Proactive Threat Hunting: Proactive threat hunting involves actively searching for signs of malicious activity within your network. This approach helps identify and mitigate threats before they can cause significant damage. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, proactive threat hunting is becoming increasingly important to stay ahead of attackers.
Enhance Your Protection with Our Full Security Stack:
We encourage all our clients to increase their protection by taking advantage of our comprehensive security solutions. Our full security stack includes all the essential tools and services to keep your business secure.
Already Protected?:
If you’re already running some of our security solutions, that’s a great start. However, we recommend utilizing our full security stack for complete protection. Ensuring you have backups, patch management, DNS analysis, application whitelisting and ring-fencing, mobile device management, email filtering, proactive threat hunting, strong password management, two-factor authentication, and updated firmware will provide comprehensive coverage.
Need Assistance?
If you don’t have suitable protection or need help conducting your mid-year security checkup, give us a call to organize it. Our team at Tech Troubleshooters is here to help you enhance your cybersecurity posture and protect your business as you enter the new financial year.