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Why Network Security Is Important
Why Network Security is important
It is imperative for small business owners to understand and recognise online hazards that they face. An increased inspection over data protection has made going online a priority for small businesses.Technology is part of our everyday lives, mobile phones, tablets, laptop, computers, its how we communicate with our family, friends and our customers. The manufactures of these products are always creating new and more secure products, but there lurking in the background are the cyber criminals trying to find holes in these items.
The threats from the cyber criminals are constant and they are getting the tools to make hacking your network cheaper and quicker from the dark web, for them a number of unsuccessful attempts to hack a network makes no difference as they can just move on to the next one, but for a business owner who is the recipient – One attack is one to many!
Threats are constantly evolving, not only the volume of attacks and severity, but the attacks are becoming very sophisticated and highly profitable for cyber criminals who will ruthlessly pursue their targets.
In the past for business owners who had a small network with several pc’s attached to a server with a router to the outside world, antivirus on each computer was enough and everything was hunky dory. Having antivirus is great but is not enough in todays cyber threat climate. What we need to consider or think about is a small business network can consist of more than just PC’s, there are printers, tablets, laptops, mobile phones, NAS drives, CCTV, Wi-Fi points which all connect to the network but more importantly connect to the internet.
As well as in the home we can have a whole array of devices that are connected to the home network and subsequently to the internet, for example: PC’s, laptops, mobile phones, game consoles, Smart speakers(Alexa), heating systems, power saving plugs, fridges, electric door bels with CCTV, the list goes on and on.
What can you do?
• You can deploy a next generation firewall, this type of firewall will allow certain operations to be used within your business network, for example an intelligent printer on your network will communicate with the print manufacturer and accept files to keep it up to date through the firewall and not allow anything else through. It will know the behaviour of websites and what it will allow in and it will block what we don’t know and allow what is needed to come through. But things are always changing, and the cyber criminals will be brushing up on this type of technology.
• Antivirus or anti-malware is not enough as the cyber criminals are using more and more sophisticated tools which are at their disposal on the dark web.
• User training – Teaching and training your staff regarding emails coming through which is a very vulnerable point of anything sinister coming through, like phishing scams with a link in the main body of the email to download Malware – so never click on links within an email if you don’t know where it is coming from – Caution is vital and staff training is the key.
• Having a good backup system or strategy in place, more especially a cloud backup in place and not keeping any backups of your data on the premises in case of a breach of your network or a ransomware attack, where all your files can be locked and encrypted and a ransom will be demanded from the attacker.
To sum up, with all the best equipment in your office, Staff training and education is critical. If you would like to find out more about your cyber security, please phone Control IT Solutions on 01738 310271
