The field of cyber security is a multi-billion dollar industry that is growing exponentially every year. The threats increase every year, getting more complex and harder to detect. It’s imperative to be proactive instead of dealing with the problem after the fact. Being proactive is far less expensive than attempting to recover after a security breach.
In cybersecurity, there are three tenets known as the CIA triad. This addresses three of the main priorities of dealing with the security of data and all technology resources, these are Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. To begin addressing these issues, there are some basic security principles everyone needs to pay attention to.
Security Basics
Virus Protection
Prevent malicious software damage
Firewalls
Deny outsiders access to your systems and data
Data Backups
Protect data from corruption or loss
Wireless
A great convenience, but a potential hole in security
Encryption
“Hide” your data in plain sight
Using one form of protection is obviously better than not doing anything, but do you want to do the bare minimum? It’s important to take a multi-layered approach to security. We must be as diligent to protect against complex attacks as the attackers themselves will use a variety of tools to perform an attack. An example of a multi-layered approach is using a firewall device, keeping anti-virus up to date, keeping the computer operating system security patches up to date, and having a data backup in place.
A backup system is something that many do not think of until it’s too late such as losing precious photos or important documents. System failures can corrupt data, but all too often we accidentally delete files without realizing it until afterward. There is an adage that has been used in IT and the military, 1 is none and 2 is one. When it comes to backups this simply means if you only have 1 means of backup, you’re not backed up and if you have 2, then you have a more reliable backup plan. It is always recommended that a backup be kept off-site of any business, and many home users do this as well.
The continuous study and research of threats and protection measures are the cornerstone of ensuring each user and business we work with is protected. This helps us develop and implement effective protection measures. Without these ongoing efforts to identify and mitigate new threats, we fall behind and leave ourselves and our clients vulnerable to damaging and costly incidents.
Many agencies study and track security threats and help establish recommended protection standards. A few of the more prominent ones are linked below:
