The author generated this text in part with ChatGPT. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed, edited, and revised the language to their own liking and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication.

As a business owner, it’s crucial to understand the importance of cybersecurity. In today’s digital age, companies of all sizes risk falling victim to cyber-attacks. From hacking and data breaches to phishing scams and ransomware attacks, the potential consequences of a cyber attack can be devastating for any business.

This blog post will cover the basics of cybersecurity for business owners. We’ll start by discussing the common types of cyber threats faced by businesses and the potential consequences of a cyber attack on a company. Then we’ll move on to best practices for cybersecurity, including implementing strong passwords and multi-factor authentication, regularly updating software and security systems, training employees on cybersecurity best practices, and more.

We’ll also cover the importance of keeping your data safe by identifying and protecting sensitive data, implementing secure methods for transmitting and storing data, and complying with data protection regulations. And lastly, we’ll discuss how to respond to a cyber attack, including having a plan in place, steps to take immediately following an attack, and how to recover from it.

In summary, this blog post will provide a comprehensive guide to cybersecurity for business owners. By the end of this post, you’ll better understand how to protect your business and its sensitive data from online threats. So, let’s dive in!

Don’t Be Caught Off Guard: Understand the Risks and Realities of Cyberattacks

Understanding the risks associated with cybersecurity is the first step in protecting your business from online threats. As a business owner, you must be aware of the different cyber-attacks your company may face. Some of the most common threats include:

• Hacking occurs when an unauthorized person gains access to a company’s network or computer systems. Hackers can steal sensitive information, disrupt operations, or hold a company’s data hostage.
• Phishing scams are fraudulent emails or messages that appear to be from a legitimate source but are actually from a cyber-criminal. They often ask for personal information or login credentials.
• Ransomware attacks involve cybercriminals encrypting a company’s data and demanding payment in exchange for the decryption key.

The potential consequences of a cyber attack on a business can be severe. A cyber attack can cause financial losses, damage a company’s reputation, cause loss of sensitive information, and even legal repercussions. Businesses may also lose customers and revenue due to a cyber attack. It’s vital to take cybersecurity seriously and take the necessary steps to protect your business from these attacks.

Stay Ahead of the Game: Implement These Essential Cybersecurity Best Practices

Implementing best practices for cybersecurity is essential for protecting your business from online threats. Some key steps that you can take include:

• Implementing strong passwords and multi-factor authentication: Strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication (such as a fingerprint or a code sent to your phone) can help to prevent unauthorized access to your business’s networks and systems.
• Regularly updating software and security systems: Software updates often include security patches that help to protect your systems from known vulnerabilities. It’s essential to keep your software and security systems up-to-date to ensure you have the latest protection against cyber threats.
• Training employees on cybersecurity best practices: Your employees are a crucial defense against cyber attacks. By providing them with training on cybersecurity best practices, you can help to ensure that they understand the risks and know how to stay safe online.
• Backing up important data regularly: Regularly backing up critical data can help you recover quickly during a cyber attack.
• Using a firewall and antivirus software: A firewall can help to prevent unauthorized access to your network, while antivirus software can help to detect and remove malware.

By implementing these best practices, you can help to protect your business from cyber threats and minimize the impact of an attack if one does occur.

Don’t Leave Your Business’ Data Vulnerable: Learn How to Keep it Safe

Keeping your data safe is an essential aspect of cybersecurity for business owners. Some key steps that you can take to keep your data secure include:

• Identifying and protecting sensitive data: Identifying the types of data that are most sensitive for your business and taking steps to protect that data is crucial. These steps may include encrypting data, implementing access controls, and regularly monitoring for unusual activity.
• Implementing secure methods for transmitting and storing data: When transmitting data, it’s essential to use secure methods such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates. When storing data, it’s critical to use secure servers or cloud-based storage solutions.
• Complying with data protection regulations: Businesses are subject to various data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), depending on their location. It’s vital to comply with these regulations to avoid legal repercussions.
• Regularly reviewing and updating policies and procedures: Regularly reviewing and updating your data protection policies and procedures can help to ensure that they are up-to-date and effective.

Implementing these steps can help protect your business’s sensitive data and comply with relevant regulations.

Don’t Panic: Learn How to Respond to a Cyber Attack Effectively

No business is immune to cyber attacks, and it’s essential to have a plan in place for responding to an attack. Some key steps to consider include the following:

• Containing the attack: The first step in responding to a cyber attack is to stop it. Stopping the attack may involve disconnecting infected devices from the network, shutting down systems, or implementing other measures to prevent the spread of malware.
• Assessing the damage: After stopping the attack, it’s crucial to evaluate the damage. An evaluation may involve reviewing logs, analyzing network traffic, and identifying any sensitive data that may have been stolen.
• Restoring normal operations: After assessing the damage, it’s vital to restore normal operations as quickly as possible. Restoring functions may involve restoring from backups, patching vulnerabilities, or rebuilding systems.
• Communicating with stakeholders: Speaking with stakeholders about the attack is essential. Informing employees, customers, and other relevant parties about the attack and the resolution plan.
• Reviewing and updating security measures: After a cyber-attack, reviewing and updating your security measures is essential. Identify what went wrong and take steps to prevent similar attacks in the future.

Having a plan in place and taking these steps can help minimize the impact of a cyber attack on your business.

Stay Protected: Learn How to Secure Your Business from Cyber Threats

Cybersecurity is an essential concern for business owners. By understanding the risks, implementing best practices, keeping your data safe, and having the plan to respond to an attack, you can help protect your business from online threats.

It is important to note that cyber threats constantly evolve, and staying informed and up-to-date with the latest cybersecurity trends and best practices is essential. It’s also important to remember that cybersecurity is not a one-time task but an ongoing process that requires regular review and updating.

Following the tips outlined in this blog post can help ensure that your business is well-protected against cyber-attacks proactively.

Don’t Go it Alone: Learn about the Resources Available to Help Protect Your Business

As a business owner, it’s essential to have access to the resources you need to stay informed and keep your business secure. Here are a few additional resources that can help:

• Government resources: Many governments have cybersecurity resources available for businesses. For example, the US government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a Small Business Cybersecurity Corner with helpful information and resources.
• Cybersecurity associations: Many cybersecurity associations offer business resources and support, such as the International Association of Security Awareness Professionals (IASAP) and Cybersecurity Ventures.
• Cybersecurity software and services: There are many cybersecurity software and services available for businesses, such as antivirus programs, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems. These can help to protect your business from cyber threats.
• Cybersecurity training and education: Many organizations offer cybersecurity training and education programs to help you and your employees stay updated on the latest threats and best practices.

Cybersecurity is a complex topic; if your business needs help with your Cybersecurity strategy, contact Gizmo Solutions today for a free initial consultation!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is cybersecurity, and why is it essential for business owners?

A: Cybersecurity refers to the practice of protecting computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from digital attacks, breaches, and other cyber threats. Business owners need to prioritize cybersecurity because it can protect sensitive business and customer information, prevent financial losses and maintain the integrity of business operations.

Q: What are some common cyber threats that businesses may face?

A: Common cyber threats that businesses may face include phishing scams, malware, ransomware, denial of service attacks, and data breaches.

Q: What are some best practices for protecting a business from cyber threats?

A: Some best practices for protecting a business from cyber threats include regularly updating software and security systems, implementing a strong password policy, training employees on cybersecurity best practices, regularly backing up important data, and implementing a disaster recovery plan.

Q: How can a business respond to a cyber attack?

A: A business should immediately disconnect affected systems from the network during a cyber attack and contact a cybersecurity expert for assistance. The company should also document and report the incident to the proper authorities and take steps to prevent similar attacks in the future.

Q: What resources are available for business owners to learn about cybersecurity?

A: Business owners can find additional resources on cybersecurity through government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as cybersecurity organizations such as the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA) and the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT).

Q: Is it enough to have antivirus software installed to protect my business?

A: Antivirus software is essential to protecting a business from cyber threats, but it should be just one part of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. Other measures, such as employee education, regular security updates, and disaster recovery plans, are crucial for preventing and responding to cyber-attacks.

About Scott Gill

Scott Gill is a blogger, tech nerd, and cybersecurity expert who’s been keeping businesses safe from online threats for ten years. He’s the go-to guy for all your technology or cybersecurity concerns and will have you laughing while you learn.

You’ve come to the right place if you’re a business owner looking to improve your online presence and attract more customers. Chances are, you’ve heard a lot of hype about SEO. But what is SEO?

This article will discuss the basics of SEO and content marketing and how they are related. By the end of this article, you’ll better understand why generating quality content is so essential for the success of your website and business.

Here are some key points we’ll be covering:

• What is SEO?
• Why is SEO important?
• How does content marketing fit into the SEO puzzle?
• The benefits of using a content-driven SEO strategy
• How to get started with creating quality content for your website

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, enhances a website to improve its visibility on search engines like Google. The higher a site ranks, the more likely users will click on it, increasing traffic and potential customers. SEO is crucial because it enables businesses to reach their target audience organically without relying on paid advertising.

Understanding the Basics of SEO

When many people think about SEO – they think about algorithms and search engines. It’s true; there is some science to SEO. But there’s a little more to it than that: SEO is part science, part art, to deliver better search engine results.

Science: SEO requires extensive keyword research and targeted content creation for specific search terms. Consistency in messaging and valuable content is crucial. Focus on creating engaging and helpful content, not word salads.

Art: Google monitors users who quickly leave your site (known as “bounce rate”). If your content is visually unappealing or poorly organized, visitors will leave. The art lies in creating engaging, well-structured content to keep visitors engaged.

Combining these elements, SEO is about tailoring your site to search engine algorithms while making it visually appealing for visitors. This powerful combination will help your website rank higher in search results.

Why is SEO Important?

SEO plays a significant role in the success of any online business. It is a strategy that helps businesses rank higher on Google. Here’s a breakdown of why SEO and content marketing are important:

By creating valuable, high-quality content and optimizing it for search engines, businesses can attract more traffic, generate leads, and boost sales. This can all be done faster and cheaper than traditional outbound email and phone marketing.

How does content marketing fit into the SEO puzzle?

Content generation is about building content (mostly blog articles) that provides value and engages readers. SEO content generation involves a specific process in which content is generated to rank on Google. These two components fit together to expand the visibility of your website and increase traffic.

Below are the high-level steps to generate new content with a content marketing strategy.

• Keyword Research: Identify the words and phrases your audience uses to search for information related to your business.
• Content Creation: Produce high-quality, relevant, and engaging content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience.
• On-Page Optimization: Implement SEO best practices, such as using header tags, optimizing image alt text, and including keywords in your content.
• Content Promotion: Share your content through various channels, such as social media, email, and guest posting, to increase its reach and visibility.
• Performance Analysis: Monitor the results of your content marketing and SEO efforts to identify areas for improvement and optimize future strategies.

By integrating SEO and content marketing, businesses can build a solid online presence, establish their expertise, and drive more traffic and sales. Remember, it’s about tweaking your website and generating quality content that resonates with your audience and search engines.

The benefits of using a content-driven SEO strategy

Implementing a content-driven SEO strategy can significantly impact your online success. It offers numerous benefits that help your business grow and thrive in the digital landscape.

Let’s break down a few of the key benefits:

1. Increased organic traffic

OK, I won’t sugarcoat it – this is why we are all here, right? Increasing the number of visitors to your site is what this is all about. The core of SEO and content marketing boils down to more clicks = more views = more leads = more sales.

But did you know your older content typically gets a bump as more content is produced? As you gain authority – and more people see your content – you will organically get more backlinks, leading to a snowball effect.

“If you build it, they will come” – Field of Dreams

So keep generating quality content relevant to your audience, and your traffic will grow.

2. Enhanced brand authority and reputation

Creating informative and valuable content demonstrates your expertise in your industry. As a result, visitors perceive your brand as an authoritative source, which in turn helps build trust and credibility among potential clients. It is difficult to predict when or how this information will be seen or be useful for someone.

Early in my technical career, I regularly posted on a technical forum. I did this periodically over a few years and had long forgotten most of my writing.

Fast forward a few years, I worked as a consultant and was placed with a new client to help with server engineering work. The first week I was there, one of the guys from the team came to me and asked if I was the Scott Gill who had posted on that forum a few years earlier about a particular issue.

After a brief conversation, he told me that my posts in that forum had helped him through an issue he had a few months earlier. By sheer coincidence, I got the opportunity to meet someone I had helped with a brief message in a forum posted five years earlier. It made me feel good that my insights might be helping other engineers worldwide without knowing.

I hope this anecdote helps you understand the power of content generation. We may never know how many people are impacted in some big or small way by the content we create. But being able to help someone you may never even hear about is impressive and somewhat scary to consider.

3. Improved user experience and engagement

Well-structured and engaging content captures readers’ attention and encourages them to stay longer on your website. Combined with a user-friendly and responsive design, this contributes to an improved user experience and higher conversion rates.

Building engaging content is much more than just writing text. Finding ways to create engaging users more effectively with images, videos, or other forms of media is just as important. Creating “wall of text” articles is super unappealing to most visitors, and they will leave the site and look for something else.

But wait, why am I writing these very long articles then? Assuming you’ve read this far, I’ve made it engaging enough to keep you interested. I have done this through anecdotes, graphics, and formatting, making the article visually appealing.

How to get started creating quality content for your website

I know this isn’t rocket science – just about everybody can write an article. The quality might vary, but everyone can build the skill and improve.

However, there are a few specific things you should know about content generation which will help your future customers find that content.

1. Identify Your Target Audience

Many new business owners probably haven’t thought about this as much as they should have. However, understanding your target audience is essential for creating content that resonates with them. Consider their demographics, interests, and needs to create a specific buyer persona to guide your content creation process.

If you own a bakery and you say your target audience is “everyone who eats bread” you are precisely the person I’m talking to here: No, it’s not. I’m making quite an assumption here – but you probably have a personality of some kind. You resonate with a particular type of person with specific demographics. Maybe you know what that is – maybe you don’t. Either way, researching and narrowing down your target audience will help you figure out how to create better content for them.

2. Conduct Keyword Research

Ok, now to the boring part – identify relevant keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for. This will help you create content that addresses their questions and concerns, increasing your website’s visibility with Google.

Unfortunately, this is not a one size fits all process. It requires a significant understanding of your target audience and a lot of research. This is very much in the science part of building content – so if you don’t know where to get started, it’s best to find some help.

However, if you want to build a certain baseline of articles just to get started – you likely don’t need help yet. You can start by guessing what people are searching for and researching via a tool like Ubersuggest, SEMrush, or something similar.

The most critical thing you can do at the beginning – is to ensure your site is registered with Google and you have Site Kit installed. Remember that you need to register for both Google Search Console and Google Analytics to get the total value of the tools. This will give you a baseline of how people find your website today.

3. Plan and Schedule Content

You’ve probably heard of generating a content schedule and sticking to it. But nobody talks about why this should be done. There are two main reasons:

1. Holding yourself accountable.
2. Maintain a following of customers – this is only important if you use email or social media to engage your followers.

But importantly – if you’re not planning to send the content out on a regular schedule, Google isn’t going to get upset. So the most important thing you can do is start posting that content – even if it is initially inconsistent, that’s fine. Get better over time and post it!

Conclusion

As we’ve discussed, SEO and content marketing go hand in hand to build traffic to your website. By creating quality content that caters to your target audience and optimizing it for search engines, you’ll be on your way to a winning SEO strategy.

Schedule a consultation with Gizmo Solutions today if you need help building an SEO strategy. Our team would happily meet with you and discuss your options with no obligation.

I’ve read a lot of articles on the subject of identity theft over the years. Most of the time they focus on how identity theft can happen. Things like stealing your mail from the trash, or misplacing your wallet in a public place. I’m not promoting forgetting about these easily solvable issues, but let me tell you why this is wrong.

First of all, this is not the movies. Identity thieves are not selecting a “mark” and following them around for days learning their habits so they can find a way to steal from them. That is a lot of work, and why would they go through all that effort when the simple truth is, they don’t have too?

So what are they doing? They’re going online and buying your information from a website. Now, don’t think that you’re so special that they targeted you specifically, because that is not how it works. They just buy a list of credit cards and go down the list until they find one that works and start charging it.

It doesn’t have to be credit cards, it could be your social security number, bank account information, or any other information that might lead to identity theft.  But how are identity thieves getting this information in the first place?  Let’s briefly review how businesses are consistently falling short of consumer expectations to secure data.

Companies are not doing enough

If you follow any sort of news whether it be TV, online, newspaper, etc. chances are you have heard of numerous security breaches. The simple truth is, most organizations are bad at Cybersecurity. It’s not entirely their fault, the bad guys are constantly looking for the slightest hole to exploit. A simple mistake of an employee clicking a link in an email is enough to lead to an event where all of your data is lost.

Take the Equifax breach from 2017 as an example. If you’re a US citizen with a social security number, there’s a good chance you heard about it. That’s because this breach led to 143 million Americans’ social security numbers being leaked online. Yes, that’s right, your social security number is out there and it has been for over five years. And of course this isn’t the only incident which leaked customer data.

(Statista – 2022)

We don’t have to look that far back to see examples of breach events. In 2021 alone, there were 4,145 publicly disclosed data breaches. Chances are you didn’t hear about anywhere near that number of breaches. Many of these were small breaches which didn’t impact consumers or only impacted a small number of consumers.

The bottom line here is this: companies are not doing enough to keep your data secure. So what should you do about it? By now you should begin to understand that you cannot count on a company to keep your data secure. So take matters into your own hands, and take steps to prevent yourself from being impacted.  Let’s outline a few simple strategies you can use to take matters into your own hands.

#1 – Take online security seriously

The best way to keep yourself secure is to take it seriously. Build security practices into your life as standard practice. There are a few ways to do this and the strategies differ based on what the goal is. So let’s outline a few methods for doing this.

The number one thing you can do is utilize good authentication practices. In a previous article I discussed how you can utilize good password practices to make it very hard to break into your online accounts.

Assume that all your data can be stolen at any moment from every company you’ve ever used. So, take steps to limit the amount of your data they have. If you don’t use an account anymore, find out how to delete it. Contact organizations you no longer do business with, and ask them to remove your data.

Use a security mindset when opening and reading email. If you have an email that looks like it might be spam, don’t even open it, just mark it as spam. If a friend sends you an email or text asking for information they wouldn’t normally ask for, don’t provide it. Contact them and make sure their account hasn’t been compromised.

If anyone asks you for your password or other type of login information, don’t provide it. Technical and customer service teams will never ask you for login information. So if someone is asking for login information, chances are very good it is not legitimate.

#2 – Simple steps to prevent financial fraud

There are a few things you can do to help prevent fraud and identity theft from ever occurring to you. Admittedly, these steps do add a little bit of inconvenience to your life. But would you rather have a little inconvenience or your life turned upside down by identity theft?

First, understand how credit works. There are four credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, Trans Union and Innovis. Start a security freeze on all four of them. This article by Krebs on Security is an excellent resource to help with the steps of security freezes. A security freeze prevents new credit accounts from being opened, eliminating the possibility of identity theft.

Monitor your credit cards and bank accounts regularly, at least weekly. If any fraudulent charges show up, immediately notify your bank or credit card company and request a new card.

Also, stick with companies that are easy to work with when it comes to fraudulent reporting. I once had a fraudulent charge from North Korea show up on an account. The company was awful, it took me weeks to get that charge and the international fee removed from the account. As soon as those charges were off my account I closed that card.

Finally, you can take an extra step to prevent fraud charges from ever showing up on your account. Assume your cards are being compromised regularly. Every 6-12 months, request a new card from your bank or credit card company. Once you have the new card, ensure the old one is deactivated. This way, if your old card is stolen in a breach you have nothing to worry about.

#3 – Stay vigilant offline as well

Ok so the steps above should prevent the vast majority of identity theft and fraud. But what about those other steps mentioned commonly by other articles online? Yeah, those steps are still important as well.

Get yourself a good quality shredder with cross-cut and shred every financial document. Even those pre-approval notices, shred those also. This prevents anyone from being able to use your mail or any other physical documents to steal information. Decent shredders range from $50-150, don’t just buy the cheapest one, do a little research and get a quality one.

Better yet, use the permanent Opt-Out process to remove yourself from those pre-approved notices. It’s a simple process that involves filling out an online form, and then printing and mailing a short document. Learn more at www.optoutprescreen.com.

Stay vigilant over the phone as well. If someone calls you and asks for payment information, be sure they are who they claim to be. There are countless scams out there claiming to be everything from the phone company to the FBI. If the FBI was going to fine you, they wouldn’t be doing it over the phone. Make sure you know the person asking for money. If in doubt, use a previous statement or the companies website to find their customer support number and call them to pay instead of relying on this stranger that called you.

Last, if you lose your wallet or any other financial information, act as if it’s been taken by a fraudster. Deactivate everything and get all new cards. Hopefully your wallet is found by a good Samaritan and returned, but don’t count on that strategy.

Conclusion

Ok there you have it, a few simple strategies you can implement to help prevent identity theft and fraud. There are always new things going on in the world that may require new strategies in the future. If you want to stay up to date on the latest strategies you can use to stay safe online, follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletter.

References

(Chart based on data from IBM Cost of data breach report)

According to IBM’s latest Cost of a data breach report, $4.35M is the the average cost of a data breach, with US costs exceeding $9M! If you want to avoid some hefty expenses, and a lot of headaches, this article will help educate you on ways to mitigate the risk of a data breach.

Introduction

I get it, as business owners, we have so much on our plate, security tends to be the last thing we think about. In this article I’m going to explain why it’s important for every business owner to learn about Cybersecurity. With the right practices, it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated to significantly reduce the risk of a breach.

Many people believe that they are safe because hackers are only after “the big guys.” But as I wrote about in a previous article, hackers are mostly motivated by money. They don’t necessarily care where that money comes from.

Also, hackers are just as lazy as anyone else, so they are going to take targets of opportunity when presented. This means they are going to work the minimum amount required to perform a breach. If and when your business presents an easy way to be breached, that is exactly when you will be.

So let’s dig in a bit deeper into how security breaches happen. Then we’ll talk about what can be done about it, and how to protect your business.

How breaches happen

According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) for 2022, credentials and phishing accounted for some 65% of breaches in 2021.  See the screenshot below:

(From: Verizon DBIR 2022)

This means the majority of breaches occurred not because of sophisticated hacking techniques. Instead, hackers were able to get in either because someone used a weak password, or fell victim to phishing (also known as business email compromise).

These are targets of opportunity which do not require significant effort to perform. Because of the ease of execution, and these types of attacks continue to work well, we continue to see the same attacks in the wild.

As a business owner, and a Cybersecurity professional, these two vectors are simultaneously the hardest, and the easiest to prevent. How can that be true? Well it turns out that no amount of security tools can be thrown at the problem to solve it. These problems can only be solved by effective employee training and security awareness. So let’s dig into this a bit more.

What can be done

Implementation of a good security strategy for the organization is the best solution to preventing a security breach. I know what you’re thinking now, “here we go, this is the part where we are supposed to do all that boring security stuff that makes everything more difficult.”

First of all, security isn’t boring, at least I don’t think so; ok maybe I’m biased a little on this subject. But if your security program is boring and difficult, then chances are it’s not going to work well for your business. As I’ve discussed before, good security professionals know that people will find ways around difficult practices to avoid the extra work.

Here are a few basic steps you can take to build a good security foundation for your business:

1. Find a good security training program.
2. Limit use of passwords whenever possible.
3. Add Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to your apps.
4. Use a password management solution when required.

Let’s dive into each of these items in a bit more detail to see how each can help you build a solid security foundation.

Security Training Program

A security training program is one of the best ways to get started. Adding security awareness for your employees helps them understand why security is an important topic. As we saw earlier, 65% of attacks involved people in some way. If you can reduce the chance your employees will accidentally click on the wrong link, you might just save yourself a lot of time and money.

A good security program should have a few key elements:

First, it should be entertaining; if it’s too boring to watch/read/etc. then nobody will pay attention too it. I get it, security is a boring topic, but that doesn’t mean your training program needs to designed for robots. You’re not training employees to be security engineers; a 30-60 minute training should be more than sufficient for your needs.

Second, it should cover the typical cyber threats experienced. These include phishing, SMishing, business email compromise, and other similar threats. Also, some industries have more specific threats that should be covered as well. For example, the medical industry frequently deals with cryptolocker attacks. Find out what kinds of attacks occur in your industry, and be sure your awareness program covers those as well.

Finally, it should cover the details of your security program. If you have any security applications in place, let users know what those are. It should cover any security policies that you have in place and where users can find additional info. Last, if you have any mechanism for reporting suspicious activity, make sure your training program covers all of those as well.

Limit passwords

For those outside of the Cybersecurity community, this may come as a bit of a shock: Passwords are not a good security practice. That may be hard to understand since most likely every website you use requires you to enter a password. Let’s talk about why that is the case a little bit.

Nobody really likes using passwords. They are tedious, and it’s impossible to remember more then a few of them. So most people tend to have a few passwords they use. When it comes time to rotate passwords, they do something like add an exclamation point, or increment the number in their password.  If this sounds familiar, don’t feel bad, I would be lying if I said I’ve never done this myself.

But here’s the problem: hackers know that people do these things. There is an entire sub-attack which focuses on taking known passwords and applying these types of practices to identify new passwords. This means if your old password has ever been leaked online, a hacker could take that and start incrementing that number or adding exclamation marks and identify your new password very easily. Let’s face it with all the security breaches, there is a good chance your password is already out there somewhere, waiting to be used by an attacker.

So what do you do about this? Use Facial recognition as a login mechanism instead. Most modern phones and computers allow some form of Face ID. It is not only more secure, it’s also more convenient. Learn how to use the solution that works for your computer, and implement it. Some business systems are starting to piggy back off of these built-in solutions as well, find out which ones you use today and make the switch. For those that don’t, make a feature request to your vendors for that functionality.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA is a great way to add a layer of security when logging into your companies applications. If you combine Face ID and MFA the process for logging in can be quick and easy as well. Most of the modern implementations of MFA rely on an app installed on your phone which relies on Face ID as well.

Here’s why this is super helpful: if a hacker somehow manages to steal your password for a website, they can’t login until you approve it with your phone. This is where security training becomes critical for your employees as well. They need to be aware that if a popup for MFA occurs on their phone randomly, there’s a chance that is an attacker trying to login to something. But don’t freak out yet, often it’s just a background browser tab which needed to re-login.

There are many solutions for MFA on the market today, many of them are part of a Single-Sign-On (SSO) solution as well. SSO is a great way to let your users login with a single authentication mechanism and limit the use of bad password practices across all of your applications.

MFA and SSO can be difficult to implement, so it’s best to consult a technical professional to avoid complications. However, these solutions are getting easier and easier to implement. This means implementing a solution shouldn’t break your bank account. If you are interested in learning more, contact us for a consultation today!

Password Vaulting Solution

So as of the time this article was written, we are still a long way from leaving passwords behind entirely. There are still millions of websites that rely on passwords today, and even the ones which allow Face ID tend to use passwords as a backup. So what about all of those?

As we discussed above, passwords suck. But it doesn’t mean you can’t make password usage really secure, and easier at the same time. Enter a password vaulting solution.

Password vaulting tools allow you to create a unique randomly-generated and highly secure password for every website you use. The passwords are stored within a securely encrypted vault. Here’s the best part: the vaulting software makes the login process easier by auto-filling your username and password details each time you visit a website.

I’ve written about password vaulting tools previously, from the context of your personal computer. But there are also many solutions designed for businesses. Systems designed for businesses have features like team sharing, user management, and in some cases automated password rotation. They may even prevent your employees from seeing passwords, or be integrated with your SSO or MFA solutions.

I will write more extensively about vaulting solutions for businesses in a future article. Make sure you follow my articles to be notified when it comes out!

Conclusion

Ok I covered a lot in this article, if you stuck with me all the way through, that’s awesome! You now know way more than most business owners about how to keep your business secure!

Let’s quickly recap what we’ve learned:

• 65% of data breaches are directly linked to credentials and phishing
• These types of attacks typically occur because of bad password security or lack of security knowledge
• There are four basic steps any business owner can take to create a foundation of good security:
  • Implement a good security training program
  • Don’t rely on passwords – use Face ID
  • Implement multi-factor authentication
  • When passwords are required – use a password vault

But let’s be honest: this is not the end of the security journey. There are many more security topics to cover. I also would not recommend implementing an entire security program by yourself.

I will provide more security information for business owners on a regular basis. If you are a business owner who wants to stay updated on Cybersecurity topics, follow me on social media, or sign up for my newsletter.

References

https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach

https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/

Ok so you’ve decided Cybersecurity is important to know a little bit about, now what? Well first off, just the understanding of Cybersecurity’s importance puts you in the minority of those who are harder to hack, so congratulations!

But now we start down the path of understanding what you can do to be more secure. This topic is a bit of a rabbit hole, so lets start with just a few of the more critical items and why they are important.

Before we get started, I want to point out something for anyone thinking this journey is going to mean a massive amount of work.  It doesn’t have to mean that at all actually.  Keeping yourself secure online is really about having a little knowledge and implementing a few simple practices to rely on.  Any good security professional knows when security is too complicated, people will find a way to avoid using it.

Start with your email

Your email account is by far the most critical thing to secure. That’s right, I just said email is more important than your bank account in this journey.

Why? Well for a hacker, if they have your email account, they pretty much own all of your accounts. This is because almost every website out there relies on your email for password resets. So if your email account becomes compromised, an attacker can simply reset your other passwords and now they have those also.

Take a minute to reflect on what that means for you. Your bank accounts, credit cards, school (if you are a student), social media, online shopping and more are all gone if your email is compromised. These days, most of us have just about every facet of our lives online in some way.

Ok, so now you understand why it’s so important.  How do you secure it then?

Secure your email account

For starters, use a really strong and unique password.  The password you use for your email should not be the same one you use for anything else.  It should be as random as possible, and as long as possible; preferably by a random password generator, and at least 16 characters long.  We’ll get into how you remember that random password in just a little bit.

Ok so now you have a super complex password, that’s it right? Wrong. Next, enable 2-Factor authentication (2FA) on  your email account. Enabling 2FA requires your account to have a second extra security layer to login, usually in the form of a randomly generated six digit number.

Right now you might be thinking “hold up, didn’t the author say this didn’t have to be complicated?” Yes, I did.

Enabling 2FA on most modern email systems is a simple process that takes only a few minutes one time. You can also configure it so it will only periodically ask for the second factor such as when you’re logging in from a new computer or once per month. I strongly suggest using these practices as it will make 2FA very minimally intrusive to normal use while also preventing an attacker from accessing your account.

One more thing, do not rely on SMS or text messages for 2FA. Use an app like Google Authenticator or another similar one that works with your provider. Not to get to into the weeds on this, but text messaging is not a secure form of authentication. I’ll save that topic for another day.

Secure your financial accounts

Ok, your email is secure now, what’s next? Your bank, credit cards, 401k, any other type of financial accounts you have are the next thing to think about.  What do you do with these?

Unfortunately, most financial institutions are slow when it comes to keeping up with security. This can be seen pretty easily as almost all of them do not have any form of 2FA beyond SMS/text messaging. “Wait didn’t he say text messages were not secure?” Yes, I did. Now you understand my statement.

Believe me this is one of the things I find most annoying about my own bank. This is one of the many reasons why we cannot rely on a company or institution to secure our data (or our money). Take the power into your own hands and use good security practices instead.

In this case, use a very strong, secure password which is unique for each account. Take special notice of unique for each account.  If you have five banks, you should have five passwords. And of course, if your financial institution has the option to enable 2FA via an app and not rely on text messages, enable that functionality. This should be the case whether it’s a bank, stock investment account, retirement account, crypto, etc. Anything where finances are involved.

Other accounts

Ok so now we’re getting into the “less critical” accounts. This would include things like shopping, social media, online gaming, and others. I’ve seen many articles discussing using an “important password” for things like your bank, and an “unimportant password” for these other items.

Personally, I think that is a bad idea. You should use the same password security practices you’d use for your bank. If there’s an account, it should have a unique password used only for that account.

When it comes to enabling 2FA for these other accounts, that’s where I think the line should be. For those accounts that aren’t going to have a significant financial impact if they were to be compromised, there’s probably no reason to enable 2FA.  Of course, some factors can change that and it’s up to you to decide if each account is important enough to add a little extra security.

Get a secure password vault

I know what you’re thinking: “I must have 100 accounts online. Do I have to remember 100 different passwords?”

I personally have over 600 accounts (662 to be exact). I understand the burden of managing accounts. But no, I do not know 600 different passwords. In fact, I don’t know any of the passwords for any of my accounts, except one: My secure vault password.

Here’s how it works: I created a unique 16 character password and memorized it specifically for my secure password vault. I used my secure vault to generate and store all the passwords for my online accounts. My secure vault is now accessible on all the devices I use regularly. It also auto-fills my passwords for me so it’s easier for me to login as I’m going about my online activities.

You may or may not have heard of this kind of solution before, but they’ve been around for many years. There are many available options out there. In a future article, I will review and breakdown the features of some of my favorites.

Everybody should put a little bit of effort into a password vault that works for you. There is definitely one out there which will work for you and make your online life more secure and easier.

Conclusion

Keeping yourself safe online doesn’t have to be a lot of work. It requires just a little bit of knowledge on the subject and maintaining a few good practices.

Let’s summarize the basic security practices:

1. Get yourself a secure password vault.
2. Utilize unique, complex, and randomly generated passwords for each account you have online; preferably 16 characters or more.
3. Enable 2FA on your email and financial accounts, and any other account you deem as “more important” to you.
4. When possible, do not rely on text messaging for 2FA or any other security related activity.

There are many more topics to cover in the #HomeSecurity series.  If you want to stay up to date and keep yourself secure, sign up for my email list.  I will send you updates anytime a new article is posted.  If there is any topic you’d like covered in more detail, please post below.

Most people think hackers are only targeting big banks or other larger financial institutions. While it is true in some cases, they are premium targets, this is not always the case. The motivations behind hackers has largely boiled down to a handful of reasons.

Let’s take a quick look at the top reasons for why attacks take place and why security is important for everybody.

(Based on data from the 2012 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report [DBIR])

As you can see above, Financial gain is the overwhelming primary reason for cyber attacks. This is seen in all data between 2012 and 2022. Espionage is a distant second place. The remaining attacks make up small percentages, but among them grudge sticks out as one we should discuss in more detail.

I want to discuss each of these in more detail as they apply specifically to home users. This would apply regardless of what company you work for, or if you’re self-employed. So let’s analyze each of these to understand why you are not as safe as you believe.

Financial gain

Most people think that financial gain means a hacker is going after a bank to steal money. But here’s the problem with that belief… if a hacker breaks into a bank, what’s to stop them from taking your money? Think about it, in the typical bank robber movie, did the bad guys stop when they realize that average people would be impacted?  No, they steal everything in the vault. So why would a bad guy hacker only steal money from the bank and not your personal money as well?

In reality, it’s actually more complicated than this…

First, hacking into a teller machine doesn’t mean an attacker can transfer money. Most often they are getting access to a system that doesn’t even connect to where the money is stored. Second, those types of systems have a ton of security around them making it extremely difficult to hack. If they could get access to those systems, bank transfers are slow so the likelihood of success is low. Finally, there are much easier and faster ways to make money.

(From 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report [DBIR])

Ransomware is a type of virus which locks you out of your files by encrypting them. Typically these viruses will ask for some form of payment to “unlock” the files. Desperate users who did not have good backup practices will quite often pay the ransom. But the dirty secret is that those users only get their data back about 30% of the time when they do pay. Most experts recommend not paying and relying on good backup strategy instead.

Ransomware attacks are on the rise in a big way globally as seen in the above graph. These types of attacks are cheap and easy to execute. If you know where to go, you could go buy a Ransomware kit in a few minutes. Then just send it out to a list of emails which you can buy from a myriad of sites online.

Espionage

(From 2015 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report [DBIR])

Espionage is admittedly probably not going to occur to you directly, but may target your company. Interestingly, according to the DBIR the most common vector for espionage attacks come from email. So it is important to be aware to be on the lookout for suspicious looking email.

I’m not going to go over espionage in as much detail as these attacks don’t typically target home users. If you are an employee of a larger company however, you are at risk for this type of attack. I will cover this topic in more detail in a future post.

Grudge

Grudge attacks typically starts with a bad breakup or a friendship which falls apart for some reason. One party then decides to hack into the other parties Facebook, or Twitter, or some other online presence they are aware of. They might post obscene pictures or comments on your social media, or steal private pictures. They may even use these pictures and access to your accounts as an attempt to blackmail you.

This is probably the one type of attack which is targeted more often to home users than businesses and organizations. Most people will probably never actually experience this type of attack. But it is an important type of attack to be aware of when events happen in life which might lead to anger in another person.

Many people aren’t aware but often times, when people get angry or upset, they look for help. I’ve seen job ads online where people pay experts to help them break into accounts. Whether these jobs are actually executed, I cannot say but be aware that it does happen. Just because you don’t think the person has the skill to steal your account doesn’t mean they won’t go looking for help.

(Example posting by user requesting help accessing an account — this may be legit but anyone could post similar messages for someone else’s account)

I want to add one more point about grudge attacks. I have been speaking primarily about direct attacks against others as if from a friend. But grudge attacks do also happen against companies and employees of those companies.

This is where things get dicey, it depends on the specific motivations of the individual and their skill. Without getting too into the weeds, they may target anyone from the CEO down to the lowest level employee. Whoever might help them achieve their desired outcome could be a potential target. This makes every employee a potential target.

Other

The other category covers all other reasons for breaches which have occurred. This could include employee error or malfunctions. Most often these types of issues will not impact home users, however, the potential is there to impact home users.

For example, if a particular vulnerability is identified for a very popular home router it is likely to be exploited at a large scale by attackers. These attackers may go unnoticed for years before anything actually happens in your home network, but it gives them a foothold inside your home network.

Here’s the core issue: once a hacker has a foothold inside your home network, they can get into anything within your home network.

Conclusion

Financial gain is by far the biggest reason for cyber attacks. These types of attacks are cheap and easy to execute. This makes these types of attacks very easy to target any home user.

You very likely receive hundreds of emails a day that you don’t see because your email provider filters them out. But some will inventively make it through the spam filtering. Stay vigilant and don’t click on attachments or links if you don’t recognize the sender.

There are many more topics to cover in the #HomeSecurity series. If you want to stay up to date and keep yourself secure, sign up for my email list. I will send you updates anytime a new article is posted. If there is any topic you’d like covered in more detail, please post below.

References

Verizon Data Breach Report 2015: Top 10 Charts and Summary

The 2020 Cyber-Espionage Report pulls seven years of data to determine threat actors, motives and actions

What Motivates Hackers? Money, Secrets, and Fun

40 Worrisome Hacking Statistics that Concern Us All in 2022

2022 Data Breach Investigations Report