Are you safe from a hack attack?

Today, companies around the world are suffering from hack attacks. These are not your small local companies that can’t afford to spend a lot of money on IT security. No, these are big companies like Citibank, Sony, Epsilon, RSA, EMC corp., and Hyundai card. Getting “hacked” can be bad, real bad. Here are just a few of the reasons that getting hacked is bad.

What can happen if you get hacked?

      - Loss of reputation

      - Possible lawsuits

      - Downtime

      - Lost revenue

You may be thinking "I'm not Citibank; my company doesn't have anything worth a hackers time". This is an incorrect assumption. Just because you don't think its valuable doesn’t mean that a hacker doesn't think it is. Look at this list of things that hackers would be interested in, and see how many things YOU have that a hacker would love to sneak in and relieve you of.

Things hackers look for:

      - Company financial records

      - Personnel files and employee health records

      - Client database

      - Customer information including:

           - Financial records and credit card numbers

           - Personal information (Name, Birthdate, social security number, etc.)

           - Medical records

      - Trade secrets

      - Company policies

      - Social networking login information

      - Check writing information (e.g. QuickBooks payroll)

If big companies with huge amounts of resources dedicated to IT security are vulnerable to attacks, what can you do to protect yourself? There are many ways to enhance your security, but it is important to not only adopt these security measures but also manage them and keep them up-to-date.

How to protect your business from a hack attack:

      - Install a firewall including:

           - External protection

           - Internal control

      - Install an antivirus program on both pc's and servers

      - Secure communication

           - Email is not inherently a secure form of communication!

           - It is important that you encrypt important data before sending sensitive information.

      - Passwords

           - Should be complex

           - E.g. numbers, capital letters and lower case letters

           - Change passwords often

           - Don't store passwords, especially all your passwords in one place

      - Additional security for laptops is advisable

      - Backups

           - Should be encrypted and stored in a secure place

           - Otherwise anyone can walk in and walk out with a complete copy of your unsecured data.

Need help?

For more information about protecting your business from hackers, please visit master-IT.com or call our friendly staff at 901.377.7891