network security

These days, business doesn't have to be done in the office. Often, there are workers in other locations who can keep up with everything that's going on in the office. Hard-working remote workers add a lot of value to the business, but they must stick to the same security measures that workers in your office do. If remote workers aren't serious about security, they can cause untold damage to the network.

Password Training

Passwords are a part of everyday life, but that doesn't mean that everyone knows how to choose them. Often, workers will choose simple passwords, such as their name or a number like 1234. Passwords that are easily guessed make up a large percentage of the passwords people choose, and hackers know this all too well. If your company has remote workers who are lax on passwords because they don't think anyone will try to hack them, they are the perfect target for a data breach.

The need for a higher degree of cybersecurity in today's world is due to the higher number of threats faces by small and medium-sized businesses. Today, your company doesn't have to be on the Fortune 500 to be targeted for a hack and data theft.

Avoiding Hacks

One of the essential parts of a company's network security is to watch for any hacking attempts so that they can be avoided. The system must be monitored and checked for malware regularly. Today's network security is an evolving set of parameters that change as the methods of hacking change. The traditional ways of staying secure are no longer effective in today's era of massive data breaches. Avoiding an attack should be one of the main priorities of running the system.

The threat of data breaches has made it more important than ever to have network security measures that are up to date. The use of multiple security methods can keep your data safer today than a simple security system. Here are a few things that you need in place to keep your network safer.

Planning Ahead

Even with every security measure possible in place, there is still a small chance of your data being breached. Before this ever happens, it's always best to have a plan in place just in case it does. Having a clear plan in place can help your company to avoid some of the harshest effects of a data breach. Having a backup (or two) for all of your company's data can help you to quickly regain it if there is a data hack. Create a step-by-step plan for your procedures after a hack. This also directs the actions of employees, but it also keeps worry and panic away by showing you a path to undoing the damage.

The use of the cloud for digital storage is well-known for its many benefits. When you have a lot of data to store, you can't go wrong by choosing to store it in the cloud for safety and security. 

These days, virtually every business is afraid of having a data breach, and for good reason. There are so many breaches happening with so many businesses from large to small that it's a necessary worry. To be more secure, it's important to know what a data breach is and how they can happen to a company's computer network.

Stolen Data

In most data breaches, the intent is to steal some of the data held by the company and to use it by either selling it or using it to take out credit cards or to buy products. It can be difficult to know whether the data has actually been stolen during an attack on a network, though. In general, if there has been a cyber attack that has made private data able to be viewed by the hacker, it's assumed that the hacker did something to take some of that data. It could be taking screenshots, copying and pasting it elsewhere, downloading it to a thumb drive or even posting the information somewhere public so that others can steal it.

Every business has an IT network that is a target of hackers. These days, any business of any size may be attacked by criminals using malware. However, there are many ways that you can make your network more secure and keep criminals out of it.

It Starts With Passwords

No matter which network security measures you use on your network, if you have weak passwords that are easily guessed and never changed, it will be easy to get into your network. The passwords that you and your employees choose should be complex and not simple words that can be found in a dictionary. Make sure that everyone knows to choose mixed characters, such as letters and numbers, and to keep the password secure so that no one can get it from them. Being careless with passwords makes it far easier for criminals to get into your computer network.

The use of managed IT to create and maintain better network security is getting more and more common among businesses of every size. Before you decide on a managed IT agreement, ask these questions about your business and what it needs.

What Do You Want the Professionals to Handle?

Your computer network in the office is complex, and there are a lot of aspects to it that need attention from IT workers. Before choosing a managed IT agreement, consider which tasks you can easily handle in the office and which ones need to be outsourced. Exactly what will you count on your managed IT team to do? Once you've identified which aspects your business needs help with, you can ensure that those services are included in the agreement that you sign.

The many items today that contain internet connectivity seems to be growing as more and more items join the internet of things. Keeping that connectivity organized and safe often requires using managed network services.

Networks Get More Complicated

A decade ago, most of the internet-connected items in an office would be the connected business computers. Today, mobile devices, including phones, tablets, laptops, and even watches, are all tapping into that computer network. This can make it harder to keep every device safe and to ensure that none of them invites in a virus that could infect the entire network. Using managed network services is one way to monitor just what is going on with your network and to have better control over it as a whole.

With cybercriminal activity aggressively land like never before, it will behoove any business and consumer to have even more security. This is where multi-factor authentication comes into play. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a security system requiring several login criteria before access is granted to a system.

Your network is the base of your business - everything is rooted in the data, information, and storage you have in your network. That means that you have access from anywhere, you can be efficient in identifying historical data, and your cloud storage is organized, accessible, and makes sense.

However, does your network have a sufficient backup solution? Sometimes we think there is a solution (we have our archives backed up on a drive somewhere), but it's not comprehensive enough to cover an actual loss event. Time to revisit your plan.