Some of the hardest cybersecurity lessons are only learned after the fact. Whether it’s a data breach caused by poor security practices or simple human error, the end result is the same: a loss of time, money, and reputation. You can learn these simple security lessons now and save yourself a lot of hurt along the way.

Here are three cybersecurity lessons your business can take to heart today.

Your Employees Are Your Greatest Vulnerability

Most businesses invest heavily in security solutions, but do little to train the human elements of their security infrastructures.

Even the most sophisticated firewalls cannot stop an employee from clicking on a phishing link or downloading the wrong attachment. These social engineering attacks are only growing more refined and more difficult to detect over time, and they’re a major tactic used to gain entry to small business networks. We recommend you train your staff on how to identify phishing attempts, establish a culture that encourages verification first, and implement a passphrase (not password) policy that makes accounts more difficult to crack.

Security is not a simple technology problem; it’s a cultural one, and if your team doesn’t know how to respond to these attacks, your security investments are practically worthless.

Backups Are Worthless If They’re Not Air-Tight and Tested

We’ve seen countless business owners lose everything because they thought a “cloud sync” was the same as a backup. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

If your backup is constantly connected to your main computer or network (like a mapped drive or a standard cloud sync), then any ransomware that strikes will also infect your backups, rendering them unusable. In fact, modern ransomware is designed to look for your backups first and encrypt them so they aren’t an easy way out. This is why we recommend “air-gapping” your backups; at least one of your backups should be completely disconnected from the Internet and your local network.

Furthermore, it’s important to run recovery tests on a routine basis to ensure your data restoration efforts will actually work should you ever need them. This kind of verification is the difference between an operational delay and a business-closing catastrophe.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Is No Longer Optional

If you are still logging into your accounts with a simple username and password, you’re living on borrowed time.

Passwords are stolen every day through a method called “credential stuffing.” Whenever there’s a massive data leak, that information eventually finds its way to the dark web, where lists of email accounts and passwords can be purchased by cybercriminals. These lists can be used to break into unsecured accounts en masse, leading to all kinds of problems. In most cases, MFA stops these attacks in their tracks, as it’s unlikely a hacker has access to your password AND your mobile device.

While it might seem frustrating or even a little annoying to use MFA, trust us when we say it’s a vital part of today’s security expectations.

Cybersecurity is not about becoming invincible; it’s about becoming too expensive to hack from the hacker’s perspective. If you train your team, air-gap your backups, and keep accounts secure with MFA, you’ll become a much more difficult target for hackers, and that makes a big difference. With TaylorWorks, you can turn these lessons into action. Learn more by calling us at (407) 478-6600.