How to break your bad security habits right now!

We all have bad habits – procrastinating, overthinking, biting our nails, fidgeting. These are all horrible habits; however they’re not bad enough to bring down a whole business. But when it comes down to security, some bad habits could be devastating! This will easily leave a business vulnerable to hacks, data loss, theft or a similar security breach.

It’s good to know though that there are simple steps IT can take to educate users on security to help them break their bad security habits right now.

The IT experts at The Computer Guyz in Cape Town offer five easy ways to improve your security and help employees become a bit more security-savvy.

#1 Using the same password for all accounts

Each year, the most insecure password habits are published on a list of the worst of the worst password offenders. Even though you may think that people would’ve learnt by now, using “123456” and “password” is still quite common. That being said, it is impossible to expect people to remember strong, unique passwords for every single account they have. Your best bet is to use a password manager which will generate random secure passwords and remember them so users don’t have to.

#2 Clicking on random links and attachments without caution

Attackers today have gotten extremely good at what they do, they can create a message that look 100% real and use tricks to unleash a virus of gain access to a user’s system. They can even to appear to come from sources that your users know and trust. Make sure to educate your users on how to double-check URLs, if they notice that they link looks suspicious – don’t click!

#3 Putting off patches and updates

If you look at the stats, it is obvious that attackers don’t waste time – vulnerabilities and exposures are taken advantage of within two weeks on being announced. So always patch early and as often as you can. You may want to consider adopting a patch management solution that will help you automate tasks and updates.

#4 Using public Wi-Fi

Everyone loves that siren song that sings – Free Wi-Fi. Whether it is at a restaurant or at the airport, there are times when it is just convenient to connect. That is when it is important to remember that “free” and “public” don’t always mean “secure”. It is a good idea to think about mandating use of a VPN, traffic will be encrypted and browsing sessions will be much more secure.

#5 Thinking security is IT’s problem

There are technical teams and security solutions in place to help online interactions, but the bitter truth is – each user is responsible for how their choices impact personal security and the security of the company. The only solution for this problem is: education, training and reinforcement. Always make sure all users know the best practices and how to use them daily. By learning how to reduce risks all users can form a formidable defense.

Your end-users are often the weakest link in your organization's security strategy. Use these five solutions to help users strengthen their security posture.