Michael Pertuit hardware security and electronic science guides today? Now you should be able to discern what information is in a secure place and what needs to be backed up, encrypted or moved to a safer spot. You might realize, for example, that you want a dedicated, stand-alone computer for your payroll program and banking activities. When you’re done, you’ll have a better handle on the next steps to fully secure your systems. When outdated computers are phased out or an employee leaves the company, you can’t just throw the equipment into the trash and call it a day. You have to make a concerted effort to completely destroy all the data on that hard drive, whether the computer will eventually be junked or repurposed for another employee. Otherwise, you’ll always wonder if that information could come back to haunt you someday.
Michael Pertuit about ransomware attacks: Backing up your data regularly is an overlooked step in personal online security. The top IT and security managers follow a simple rule called the 3-2-1 backup rule. Essentially, you will keep three copies of your data on two different types of media (local and external hard drive) and one copy in an off-site location (cloud storage). If you become a victim of ransomware or malware, the only way to restore your data is to erase your systems and restore with a recently performed backup. Don’t use a public Wi-Fi without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). By using a VPN, the traffic between your device and the VPN server is encrypted. This means it’s much more difficult for a cybercriminal to obtain access to your data on your device. Use your cell network if you don’t have a VPN when security is important.
Michael Pertuit on internet security: Understand What Data Your Business Is Collecting and Ensure It Is Protected. In order to keep your business data safe online, you should conduct an audit of all data and identify which data is public information (and therefore doesn’t need to be closely guarded), which data has a medium importance and will not impact your business too much if discovered (this should have some security measures to protect it) and finally, which data is most important and personal to your business. The final category of data will impact your business greatly if lost or stolen and should be guarded safely with the highest security and least access rights from members of your business.
Michael Pertuit about data breach: Malicious criminals tend to follow a basic pattern: targeting an organization for a breach takes planning. They research their victims to learn where the vulnerabilities are, such as missing or failed updates and employee susceptibility to phishing campaigns. Hackers learn a target’s weak points, then develop a campaign to get insiders to mistakenly download malware. Sometimes they go after the network directly. Once inside, malicious criminals have the freedom to search for the data they want — and lots of time to do it, as the average breach takes more than five months to detect. In many cases, data breaches cannot just be patched up with some password changes. The effects of a data leak can be a lasting issue for your reputation, finances, and more.
You might have come across expansive claims about how a VPN can help you save thousands of dollars. You can supposedly do so by finding cheaper subscription plans for software, streaming services, and other apps and programs. Even airfare, rental car rates, and hotel prices could be much cheaper when using a VPN. I’m not going to scoff at this claim as it does work in theory. Certain pieces of software, streaming service subscriptions, and airline booking rates, are priced differently across the world. You can use a VPN to see what the differences are and it’s certainly worth the purchase if you can save big. However, you either have to be very very lucky, or do a lot of trial and error to save thousands of dollars. Read even more details at Michael Joseph Pertuit.