October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a crucial time to highlight the importance of staying safe in the digital world. With cyber threats evolving rapidly, it’s more important than ever for individuals and organizations to understand how to protect their sensitive information from potential attacks. Whether it’s safeguarding personal data or securing a company’s network, cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.
This month serves as a reminder to educate, implement best practices, and take proactive steps to build a safer online environment for all. Below, we’ve compiled essential tips to help individuals and companies strengthen their cybersecurity defenses.
James Greenwood,Regional Vice President, Technical Account Management at Tanium
“As we discuss Cybersecurity Awareness month, a lot of IT teams are inevitably feeling stretched. A combination of skills shortages and shrinking budgets means burnout is rife across the industry. In cybersecurity, this can quickly lead to human errors that open up an organisation to increased risk.
“Automation is one way to overcome this growing issue. Automation will change the IT workforce for the better by leading to reduced human error, lowering burnout rates and improving work-life balance. For example, most patching today needs to happen outside of regular working hours due to systems having to be shut down for hours at a time. With automated patching, this would no longer be the case, leading to happier, more productive teams that are less likely to make mistakes that could cost their company millions.
“This Cybersecurity Awareness month, organisations should be thinking about how they can leverage automation tools to support critical tasks, from endpoint monitoring to compliance auditing and patching. This won’t just save resources and reduce burnout but will reduce the overall risk involved in manual cybersecurity processes.”
Simon Berglund, Senior Vice President and General Manager for APAC, Diligent
“Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an opportune time to reiterate the critical and accelerating need for proactive governance to address cyber risks. As cyber attacks become more sophisticated, boards and executive teams must prioritise cybersecurity not just as an IT issue, but as a core element of their governance strategy.
“As highlighted by recent legislations, the accountability for cyber failures rests not only on companies but also on individual executives. It’s crucial that organisations implement proactive governance programs, conduct regular risk assessments, and ensure that CISOs are equipped with both the authority and liability protection needed to address these risks effectively. Cybersecurity should be a shared responsibility, requiring collaboration between legal, compliance, and security teams. Regular, transparent reporting to the board and comprehensive employee training programs are essential to minimise vulnerabilities. At Diligent, we equip leaders with the tools to stay ahead of cyber risks by offering real-time insights and secure collaboration across governance, risk, and compliance. In today’s fast-changing environment, boards must ask the right questions, engage with cybersecurity experts, and foster a risk-conscious organisational mindset.
“Cybersecurity isn’t a one-off effort; it’s an ongoing obligation. Now more than ever, it’s critical to build more secure, resilient organisations through an optimised, holistic practice across not only cyber, but all GRC executives and the Board Directors.”
Alyssa Blackburn, Program Manager- Information Management, AvePoint
“High-profile data breaches today are often the result of poorly managed systems and a lack of proper information lifecycle management. While external cyber threats have grown more sophisticated, many breaches stem from outdated or inefficient internal processes. Too often, organisations focus on responding to external threats while neglecting the internal processes that allow those threats to succeed in the first place.
“When critical information isn’t properly classified, retained, or disposed of, organisations are left exposed, increasing the risk of breaches. Stale, ungoverned data becomes a ticking time bomb, ready to be exploited by malicious actors.
‘To address these vulnerabilities, it’s critical for organisations to prioritise optimising their systems and making secure practices intuitive for employees. Cybersecurity shouldn’t be an added burden, but it should instead be seamlessly integrated into everyday workflows. The right thing to do must be the easiest thing to do, reducing the friction employees face when handling data securely.
“Rather than relying solely on employee training or adding extra security tasks, businesses should focus on strengthening their systems and automating data and and simplifying the management of records and information, ensuring compliance and lifecycle governance across cloud-based systems. This proactive approach ensures that security measures are effective and easy to follow, with a strong focus on proper information lifecycle management—ensuring that data is appropriately classified, retained, and disposed of in a timely manner.
“By simplifying security and building resilient, well-managed systems, organisations can better protect themselves from breaches while fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness and responsibility.”
Cybersecurity Tips for Individuals & Companies
Whether you’re protecting your personal information or a company’s sensitive data, these simple tips provided by ThreatLocker, which can help keep you safe in the digital world.
Individuals
Create Strong Passwords
- Complexity is key: Avoid easy-to-guess information like birthdays or pet names. Instead, create passwords using a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Aim for at least 12 characters or longer.
- Unique passwords for every account: Reusing passwords across multiple accounts is a major security risk. If one account is compromised, all your accounts using the same password are vulnerable.
- Password managers: Consider using a password manager to securely store and generate unique passwords for each of your accounts. This eliminates the need to remember numerous passwords and simplifies secure logins.
Recognize Phishing Scams
- Be skeptical: Be cautious of unexpected emails, texts, or calls asking for personal or financial information, even if they appear to be from a trusted source.
- Verify the sender: Always double-check the sender’s email address or phone number before responding to any requests. Hover over links to see the actual URL before clicking, and be wary of attachments from unknown senders.
Secure Your Home Network
- Change default credentials: Immediately change the default username and password on your router. Default credentials are easily accessible to hackers.
- Enable strong encryption: Use the latest encryption protocols like WPA3 to secure your Wi-Fi network.
- Keep firmware updated: Regularly check for and install firmware updates for your router to ensure it’s protected against the latest security vulnerabilities.
- Guest network: Set up a separate guest network for visitors to isolate their devices from your main network and protect your personal data.
Stay Safe on Public Wi-Fi
- Limit sensitive activities: Avoid accessing sensitive information like financial transactions on public Wi-Fi networks. These networks are often unsecured and can be easily monitored by hackers.
- Use a VPN: If you must use public Wi-Fi, consider using a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your internet traffic and protect your data.
Companies
Employee Education
- Regular training: Conduct ongoing cybersecurity training sessions to educate employees about the latest threats, social engineering tactics, and best practices for data protection.
- Simulations and drills: Use phishing simulations and other exercises to test employee awareness and preparedness. This helps identify areas for improvement and reinforces good security habits.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Implement MFA everywhere: Use MFA for all user accounts, especially those with access to sensitive data or critical systems. This adds an extra layer of security, making it harder for attackers to gain unauthorized access.
Network Segmentation
- Isolate sensitive data: Segment your network to keep sensitive data and critical systems separate. This helps limit the damage if a breach happens by making it harder for attackers to move laterally across your network.
Regular Backups
- Offsite or cloud storage: Regularly back up important data to an offsite location or cloud storage. This way, you can recover your information if there’s a ransomware attack or any other data loss issue.
- Test your backups: Periodically test your backups to ensure they are working correctly and that you can restore data when needed.
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