Build Your Cybersecurity Awareness for Better Data Protection
What is Cybersecurity
The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency defines cybersecurity as the art of protecting networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use and the practice of ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.
What is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)?
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) leads the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to cyber and physical infrastructures. It connects the government, private sector, and public to resources, analyses, and tools to help build cyber, communications, and physical security and resilience with a goal to build a secure and resilient infrastructure.
CISA Supports Public and Private Sector Cybersecurity Challenges
CISA was created to work across public and private sectors, challenging traditional ways of doing business by engaging with government, industry, academic, and international partners. As threats continue to evolve, there is no single organization or entity that has all the answers for how to address cyber and physical threats to critical infrastructure, but by bringing together insights and capabilities across many segments CISA is building a collective defense against cyberthreats.
What is CISA’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month?
With a mission to grow awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and equip people with resources, tips, and tools needed to be safer and more secure online, CISA kicked off Cybersecurity Awareness Month on October 1st, 2022.
CISA’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month website and National Cybersecurity Alliance’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month website, offer a lot of information to educate and inform, as well as tools and resources you can use to help promote cybersecurity beyond just October.
What are the Risks to Having Poor Cybersecurity?
There are many risks, some more serious than others. Among these dangers are malware which can attack your entire system, files, or be used to attack other computers and networks. Plus, you may not know until it’s much too late that your sensitive records have been altered or erased. Worse, without vigilant data protection and monitoring processes, trying to find when that critical data was compromised and whether you have the correct data to restore could be costly and time consuming. There is no guarantee that even with the best precautions some of these things won’t happen to you, but there are steps you can take to minimize the chances and ways to protect your data should disaster strike.
To minimize the risks of cyberattacks, CISA suggests starting with these basic cybersecurity best practices:
- Keep software up-to-date. Install software patches from verified publishers so that attackers cannot take advantage of known problems or vulnerabilities.
- Run up-to-date antivirus software. A reputable antivirus software application is an important protective measure against known malicious threats. It can automatically detect, quarantine, and remove various types of malware.
- Use strong passwords. Select passwords that will be difficult for attackers to guess and use different passwords for different programs and devices. It is best to use long, strong passphrases or passwords that consist of at least 16 characters.
- Change default usernames and passwords. Default usernames and passwords are readily available to malicious actors. Change default passwords, as soon as possible, to a sufficiently strong and unique password.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA). Authentication is a process used to validate a user’s identity. Attackers commonly exploit weak authentication processes. MFA uses at least two identity components to authenticate a user’s identity, minimizing the risk of a cyberattacker gaining access to an account if they know the username and password.
- Install a firewall. Firewalls may be able to prevent some types of attack vectors by blocking malicious traffic before it can enter a computer system, and by restricting unnecessary outbound communications. Some device operating systems include a firewall. Enable and properly configure the firewall as specified in the device or system owner’s manual.
- Be suspicious of unexpected emails. Phishing emails are currently one of the most prevalent risks to the average user. The goal of a phishing email is to gain information about you, steal money from you, or install malware on your device. Be suspicious of all unexpected emails.
Mitigate Cybersecurity Disaster with Multi-Layer Data Protection
Cyber threats are just one of the many ways disaster can strike your data. Things you didn’t even know could happen, occur every day. Having a crisis response plan and multi-layered data protection when an event happens will pay off.
The VaultTek data protection solution provides a multiple layers of data defense with our triple-redundant backup system: one on-site backup and two separate backups at remote U.S.-based data centers. When disaster strikes, recovery begins quickly with assistance from your dedicated expert to guide you through the process. The convenience of having an on-premise backup with the added security of replication offsite means your recovery process can start immediately. Plus, our team of dedicated experts manage and monitor the process. Should disaster strike, you should have peace of mind that your data is protected and assistance is just a phone call away. Our personalized approach to data protection means VaultTek partnerships are anchored in trust, enable resiliency, and make disaster recovery seamless.