4 Cyber Security Bad Habits that You Can Start to Fix Right Now

When it comes to hacking and cybercrime, it can literally be a few seconds that will ruin your business. One single chink in your network’s armor is all it takes for your data to be compromised. Modern SMBs need to take every opportunity to ensure they’re using best practices to help keep their network safe and secure. Here’s a look at four network security bad habits that you and your team can fix today.

Everyone Loves an Underdog…
When it comes to battle, the history of the world is filled with stories of the meek overtaking the mighty. The Battle of Thermopylae saw a handful of Spartans overcome an army of about 300,000 Persian warriors. In 1297, William Wallace fought for Scottish independence by using Sterling Bridge as a tactical advantage to level the field against the better trained, better equipped British army.

In the majority of these epics, the losers were overconfident and had vastly underestimated their opponents. When it comes to your business’ network, you can’t afford to be overconfident. Underestimating the capability of cybercriminals, assuming that your defenses are enough is a major risk. Cyber security is a fluid entity, constantly changing and improving and businesses must be constantly adapting and evolving to keep their network safe. It only takes one breach of your network to cause some serious damage to your business.

Why Can’t We Be Friends?
Not all network security software and applications are compatible with each other. Without realizing it, it’s possible to have security software or other incompatible technology putting your network at more risk by disabling or blocking features of another security program.

Occasionally, an antivirus may flag a non-malicious file as being malicious. Think of this as a software version of ‘better safe than sorry’. However, that doesn’t mean that as soon as they’re flagged the file should be immediately disposed of. Potentially malicious files should be reviewed by a technology professional before removing them. Hastily deleting a file without knowing anything about them could result in things like programs missing important files or the loss of documents.

A Wrinkle in Time
When it comes to many types of malware, software publishers are aware of the danger and release patches to help prevent those who have purchased their program or app from being a victim of cybercrime as a result of a known issue. The problem is that releasing patches and security updates regularly will only help those that make it a priority to apply them on their network. Think about how many ransomware attacks that devastated businesses around the globe could have been stopped by a simple security patch.

Threat Level: False Alarm
Security risks have several different threat levels. By turning on these alerts, the number of messages about security become overwhelming very quickly. Many users learn to ignore the notifications. To avoid the risk that you’re going to accidently tune out an important alert because of many false alarms, it’s possible to set your network to only tell you about actual risks.

Are you or any of your employees guilty of these bad habits? Or perhaps you run into a few other types of behavior that puts your business or network at risk? Let us know in the comments!