Be it a gigantic business enterprise or your personal system, all are potential targets when it comes to cyber theft.     Today’s tech has contributed towards the advancement both against and in cybercrimes which is a point of major concern. Thus it is quite crucial today to know how to manage and protect one’s digital property and privacy. Here are certain vital practices encouraged by cybersecurity experts:

• Keep Your System Up-To-Date:

Vulnerabilities in your system often are a result of out of date software and hardware which are basically open gateways for hackers to hack into your systems and disrupt its flow. Software companies often release updates and patches to be installed in order to protect your system against such attacks and thefts. Enabling automatic updates and regular scans using anti-virus and malware software are also encouraged.

• Use Strong Passwords:

Passwords are vital when it comes to data breaching. Having a strong and unique password is an easy measure to protect your intellectual property from such breaches. 14 characters or more is the recommended length for strong passwords. Try to utilize numbers, symbols and punctuations to increase the complexity of your password. Tools like password managers and generators can also be used. 

• Change Passwords Frequently:

Cyber security experts recommend changing your passwords every 3 months or so since passwords can easily be compromised otherwise. Further make sure to change the default passwords for any device such as your router etc.

• Multi-factor Authorization:

Multi-factor authorization or MFA is a protocol utilized by various organizations to protect their network from cyber theft. MFA comprises of 2 or more factor based authorization where the initial factor is usually your password while the later could be a number of different things such as a code or text sent to your phone to be entered next, a digital key or your very own fingerprint. MFA does indeed greatly reduce the risk of cybercrime towards your intellectual property.

• Encryption and Back Up:

Encrypting your Data is a highly encouraged measure since it prevents damage to property and reputation even if a cybercriminal attains access to your data since it will only be gibberish to them. Certain specific software or system settings can enable encryption. Further saving copies of your data on detachable devices and cloud is also important so that it can be retrieved as back up.

• VPN and Dedicated IPs:

While browsing through a public Wi-Fi, chances of a cyber-attack are heightened. To ensure safer browsing you can use a virtual private network or VPN in order to encrypt your network and protect your system against cyber-attacks. Further VPNs offer a dedicated IP for safer browsing which is unique and static and thus hides your real IP to assist you in safer browsing.

• Penetration Tests:

For an organization data is of significant value and is thus the most targeted domain by cyber criminals. Thus in order to protect your organization against these attackers one can hire a security firm to perform a penetration test for their organization. The hired “attackers” break in to your system in order to determine how difficult or easy it is to do so and how much data of yours is actually at risk. 

• Secure DNS:

DNS attacks are among some common attacks as data proves 1/8 companies have befallen such an attack and lost data. Thus in order to prevent this, management must make sure the system possesses DNS security.

    All in all the mentioned measures among others such as employee training, utilization of firewall and antivirus software, device managements etc. can assist you in protecting your business against cyber-attacks. At the end of the day an organization needs a proper procedure to prevent and handle cyber breaches and these measures can for sure give you more than a head start.