Data is exceptionally valuable. We all use it every single day to make personal decisions and to run our businesses. Data is used to create products, design marketing campaigns, make payments, change strategies, direct organisations and so much more.
Because of how valuable it is, data is constantly in danger of being stolen. It is a threat that too many small business owners dismiss too quickly.
You are not too small (or too big) to be of interest to a hacker – you will be amazed how much value they can get out of you and your data! It is important to take the protection of your data seriously – so, we have a few articles about cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity is defined as “the protection of internet-connected systems from cyber-threats”.
We would like to point out the words “internet-connected”.
It is important to realise that if you are connected to the internet in any way, then your data is at risk. Cybersecurity is not just something to take seriously if your business is online or if you work in IT. If you have an internet connection on your computer, if you use a smart phone or a tablet, or even an Apple watch or smart home device, then you can potentially end up the victim of cyber crime.
The worst part about it, is that sometimes you won’t even know that your data has been stolen.
The goal of implementing cybersecurity is to provide protection for all your hardware, software, mobile devices and networks from any attackers with malicious intent. Cyber attacks can take many forms and can have many different purposes – some are designed to simply access and copy your information, some delete information, some will close off your access to your own info and hold it to ransom!
Our next post will deal with the different type of cyber attacks but in the meantime, we recommend that you start taking your cybersecurity seriously.
Make sure that your computer and everything sensitive on it is password-protected and follow these tips to make sure your passwords are effective:
- Never use the same password for everything
- Do not include personal information in your passwords (names, birthdays, places, etc)
- Do not save your passwords in a file on the computer you are trying to protect. Memorise them or write them down on a paper that you keep super safe. (Or use a password keeper)
- Make your password as long as possible
- Use numbers and special characters in your password
If you don’t know where to start, then we HIGHLY recommend the services of IronTree. You can have a look at them here.
