08/06/14

CHECKLIST – How to Avoid Criminal Cyber Attacks

“This is the New Normal!”

In our internet-connected world we now lead our personal lives, operate our businesses and conduct more financial transactions online. As a result, we are increasingly at risk from the activities of highly-organised, globally dispersed and extremely devious cyber-criminal gangs operating worldwide. These gangs actively target private computer users and small businesses whose internet security tends to be lax or who have not realised the importance of investing in paid-for high level security software tools to protect themselves. 

At a Glance Guide

We have prepared this short checklist to help you make sure you have a regime of good practice in place.

• Ensure
  your operating system and security software are regularly updated.
• Invest
  in substantial anti-virus tools, including specialist Cryptolocker prevention
  kits.
• Don’t open
  attachments from unknown sources or from emails that appear to be from a
  legitimate source but are suspicious.
• Regularly back
  up important data and keep it within unconnected storage.
• Consider
  moving more data to Cloud services offered by Google and others.
• Businesses
  should check incident response and resilience protocols to monitor for
  infection.
• Ensure staff
  are educated in good computing practices and how to spot threats.
• Use software to
  identify if a computer is infected. If so, disconnect it from network
  immediately and seek professional advice.
• If you believe you have been
  compromised, change online account passwords and network passwords after
  removing the system from the network.
• Block .exe files over email, including within ZIP files. This can usually be
  done using an anti-spam system.

Helpful Advice

If you want to know more about the practical steps you can take to protect yourself and your business online – please get in touch with us.  Call us on 01743 290588 or email katy@networksupportsolutions.co.uk.