Keeping yourselves and your clients/customers secure with a robust cyber-security framework.
A Reminder of The Essential Eight
The Essential Eight is a cyber-security framework consisting of eight key strategies: application control, patching applications and operating systems, configuring Microsoft Office macro settings, restricting administrative privileges, implementing multi-factor authentication, conducting daily backups, and user application hardening.
Utilising the Essential Eight helps businesses establish a strong cyber-security foundation, strengthen their resilience against cyber-attacks, and protect their reputation, customers, and overall business operations.
What Would a Data Breach Cost Your Organisation?
A data breach can have severe financial consequences for any business. The costs associated with a breach can vary depending on several factors, including the size of the business, the nature of the data compromised, the extent of the breach, and the effectiveness of the response.
Direct costs of a data breach include incident response, investigation, and remediation. These expenses encompass hiring forensic experts, conducting internal investigations, implementing security measures, notifying affected individuals, and providing credit monitoring services. Additionally, legal fees, regulatory fines, and potential litigation can add substantial financial burdens.
Indirect costs can be equally significant. A data breach can damage reputations, eroding customer trust and loyalty. This can result in lost customers, decreased revenue, and difficulty acquiring new customers.
Rebuilding reputation through marketing and PR efforts further adds to costs. Moreover, due to the breach’s aftermath, businesses may face operational disruptions, loss of intellectual property, and decreased employee productivity.
The long-term effects are also notable. Increased cyber-security investments, ongoing monitoring, and audits become necessary to prevent future breaches. Insurance premiums may rise, and it becomes harder to secure partnerships or contracts due to perceived security risks. A data breach can damage a business financially, impacting its stability, growth, and competitiveness.
Cyber Vigilance And Having Good Internal Controls
Agents need strong security controls, especially during tax time when scammers and criminals are expected to be very busy.
Cyber vigilance and good internal controls are critical to a robust cyber-security position. Cyber
vigilance involves being alert and proactive in identifying and responding to potential threats and vulnerabilities.
It includes regular monitoring, threat intelligence analysis, and staying updated on emerging risks. Good internal controls involve implementing security policies, procedures, and technologies to safeguard data, restrict access, and detect and prevent unauthorised activities.
They include measures like user authentication, data encryption, network segmentation, and regular audits. By practising cyber vigilance and maintaining strong internal controls, businesses can mitigate risks, protect sensitive information, and ensure the integrity and availability of their systems and data.
Using A Password Manager
Passwords and passphrases are the first line of defence in keeping your business safe. If cyber criminals crack your password, they’ve got the keys to your business. They can steal your hard-earned cash, redirect invoices to their own bank account, access your confidential information or commit fraud by pretending to be you.
Cyber vigilance and using a password manager offer numerous benefits in today’s digital age. We have become more aware of online threats, protecting our personal information and digital assets.
A password manager is an application that securely stores, generates and manages passwords for all of your accounts. With a password manager, you only need to remember one master password, the password manager takes care of the rest. Think of a password manager as a safe for your passwords and the master password as the key to the safe. You can use password managers on computers and mobile devices.
A password manager ensures strong, unique passwords for each account, reducing the risk of data breaches and identity theft. It simplifies password management, saving time and enhancing security. Ultimately, these practices empower us to navigate the digital landscape confidently and safely.
For more information about passphrases and password managers, visit www.cyber.gov.au
Password Manager Wins
Win #1 Make your master password your strongest
Your master password is the key to your safe. If someone guesses your master password, they may be able to access all your passwords. Make sure your master password is unique and your strongest password.
The strongest type of password is a passphrase which is easy to remember. Passphrases are a
combination of random words, for example, ‘crystal onion clay pretzel’. The best passphrases:
- Are at least 14 characters long.
- Use a random mix of four or more words.
- Do not use popular phrases, for example song lyrics or famous quotes.
- Are not re-used across multiple accounts.
Passphrases are easy for you to remember and hard for machines to crack.
Win #2 Enable multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication is a method of increasing the security of a password manager.
Multi-factor authentication requires you to prove your identity in two or more ways before you can access sensitive features of your password manager. It typically requires a combination of at least two of the following:
- Something you know (e.g. a passphrase or PIN).
- Something you have (e.g. an authenticator app or physical token).
- Something you are (e.g. your fingerprint or face scan).
Enabling multi-factor authentication on your password manager adds an additional layer of security. It means that even if a cyber-criminal learns your master password, they will not be able to access your other passwords as your other authentication methods keep your password manager secure.
Win #3 Choose the right password manager for you
Many types of password managers exist, but their quality and security may vary. When choosing a password manager, do your research to ensure that the vendor has a good reputation and that their product has strong security features, strong privacy features and is maintained with regular security updates.
Different password managers have different features. Consider what features are important to you.
You may want to check if your password manager:
- Has a plan that covers family members.
- Can manage your passwords across multiple devices.
- Supports all the different devices you use.
- Ensures only you can see your saved passwords, even the company that makes the password manager cannot see them.
- Many password managers are free (Google Password Manager), and some are included with certain devices and programs. We use and recommend LastPass, as it has many enhanced features.