Your Business’s Secret Data Security Weapon

Updates are annoying but imortant

You know that feeling when you look in your phone’s app store, and there are 29 apps asking to be updated? Yes, everyone gets annoyed with this sometimes.

What’s worse is when you’re working on your work computer, and software pings up a message saying it needs to be updated. At least phone apps don’t take long and don’t interrupt you that much. On your computer, it’s too easy to hit “remind me later” and forget it. Often these updates are known as patches. And they’re there to keep your business safe. When a vulnerability is found in a piece of software or an operating system, the developers work really fast to create a small update – the patch – that fixes the vulnerability. This is like a Band-Aid, until a full update is created. It’s risky to ignore any updates. A recent study found that today’s top 4 most exploited vulnerabilities were discovered between 2018 and 2020.

The fact that they’re still in the top 4 shows that many businesses are skipping updates! The answer is simple: Get your IT partner to make sure all your software is always up-to-date. This can be done remotely and easily with minimal disruption to you and your team.

Public Wi-Fi is convenent but leaves you vunerable

With more of us working remotely now, coffee shops are getting busier again as we look for somewhere other than home to work.

But while it can be great for getting rid of distractions, it’s not so good for security. That’s because public Wi-Fi is a hotspot for data theft. Any data sent over public Wi-Fi that doesn’t need a password to access is vulnerable to theft or manipulation from someone else using that network. And it’s not just other Wi-Fi traffic you need to consider. There are also fake networks to be wary of. You think you’re connecting to the coffee shop’s Wi-Fi… but how do you know it isn’t a fake version with the same name? As soon as you log on, they can suck up all of your credentials and any other personal data on your device. If your team is using public Wi-Fi regularly, the best practice is to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to keep your data safe. This acts as a private tunnel for your device to connect to a private network, keeping your info safe.

Following these best practices will help keep you and your business safe from cybercriminals. If you have any questions to would like to know how we can help reach out, we are always happy to help.