Cyber Security is everyones fight

Cyber Security may have seemed like a very specialized area of expertise and that it wouldn’t make sense to learn about it if you weren’t planning on making it a career path. This has changed drastically now that most of your life is run digitally. Being aware and educating yourself is becoming more of a necessity than just an extra notch on your knowledge belt.

Having a basic security knowledge will assist you in making decisions towards implementing professional cyber security plans within your place of work and creating a safer cyber home life.

It is no longer something you can be oblivious to, you assume that with anything related to your computer or network, its IT’s problem, it’s all on them and that you don’t play a role, that is far from the truth.

 The IT department and cyber security partners can only do so much to keep the security at its highest level, if you are clicking on suspicious links, putting infected usb’s into machines and sending money without verifying the sender, it will be impossible for them to keep the environment safe, this is why you need to realize that you play a big part in keeping cyber crime out of the office.

Employees are the front line when it comes to the cyber war zone, how can you have no weapons in order to fight your battle?? Knowledge is your weapon and the more you know, the less likely it is that you will lose the battle.

Cyber criminals thrive on manipulating human behaviour and rely on human error. This is why they target people who are in the front line.

One method of attack which the front line sees often is spoofing. This is when they target you by posing as a person you deal with regularly by sending a spoofing email, which includes false data making it seem real and attempt to gain access to your system, which would work should you respond.

 By being aware and understanding different methods of how cyber criminals try and get their foot in the door, you can stop the attack from being successful. By verifying with your senders when you receive request emails that seem a little strange or too urgent, will increase awareness and hopefully more of your recipients will start doing the same.

You are adding value to your work place by ensuring that you put into action what you learn about cyber safety, by being able to reassure your customers that security is a high priority and that you understand the importance to keep their data safe and to pass it on to your colleagues. In your home life, your personal information will be kept safe.

If you are a CEO or an influencer in your organisation, you have the power to ensure that you have the best cyber security partner in place, like J2 Software, to work alongside your IT department and understand that it is everyone’s responsibility not only the professionals.

Giving your employees the opportunity to learn about the importance and impact that they have on the company’s cyber wellbeing will benefit the organisation and keep your customers happy, the human element that needs to be used is compassion and showing customers that you take cyber security very seriously and not just putting up a front for brownie points.

We are all in this fight together, keep promoting cyber safety and passing on your knowledge to combat cyber crime!

Here are a few safe computing steps to remember:

• Change your passwords often and don’t have the same for multiple log ins.
• Be aware on what you are clicking on.
• Always lock your computer screen.
• Don’t delay a software update, always make sure you are on the latest version.

#letsgetreal

From your Resident Millennial here at J2!

Olivia Hannah Coetzee