October is often associated as the harbinger of Fall, cooling weather, the changing color of leaves, baseball’s World Series, and a “Trick or Treat”-filled Halloween. Unfortunately, with the growing number of global cyber attacks this year, October might see more “tricks” than treats.
Whether dropping malicious malware on your server, stealing your sensitive data, or holding your data hostage for ransom, cyber attackers are a very real threat. Bordering on the scary and creepy, there’s even a new Voldemort ransomware that’s rearing its ugly head this season. And those nifty Internet of Things (IoT) devices may make life more convenient―but more and more IoT devices are growing infested with stealthy malware.
Fortunately, you can take measures to raise your level of cyber awareness and stay on guard.
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), a month-long initiative to help organizations and consumers keep their online lives safe and secure at work and at home. Below are eight key tips for raising cyber awareness.
Top Eight Tips for Cyber Awareness
1. Make good security personal: Extend protection beyond your office walls; good security behavior benefits your employees at home as much as it protects your corporate environment.
2.Baseline your security regularly: Understand your state of vigilance so that you can interpret the symptoms that lead to a security incident.
3.Get executive and board engagement: The human element of cyber risk is likely to be higher outside your IT department than within it. With early executive leadership buy-in, you can make your security culture all-inclusive.
4.Develop a cyber awareness plan: Security incidents happen every day. How do you identify the important incidents and ensure the business remains effective and up-and-running under all circumstances?
5.Promote security education company-wide: From the board to new hires, it’s essential everyone understands they’re responsible and accountable. They need to know what part they play in the bigger picture.
6. Plan for today and scale for the future: Stop applying quick fixes to security issues, unless they are aligned to a longer-term strategy.
7. Be accountable: Understand what the regulatory, legislative, and peer-to-peer controls are that you need to adhere to. Make sure you have a clearly defined owner for each of these and an executive sponsor.
8. Don’t wait for it to happen: Test your processes, procedures, and people regularly. Make sure you have clearly defined lifecycles that reflect changes in business strategy, technology use, and culture. Make sure your strategy is current and effective for the business and the risks.
For more than 30 years, Symantec has made the online world safer, giving customers peace of mind and making the world around us a better place. Our primary goal as a leader in the cyber security industry is to give people the information and tools they need to defend themselves against professional cyber attacks―and to help them be safe and successful all year round.
Be sure to download the Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, Vol. 21 (ISTR) for more actionable insights on the global threat landscape.