We hope your year is getting off to a good start and, whilst the weather may be wintry, at least the days are getting longer! In this month’s newsletter we focus on how you can add an additional layer of security to your operations, especially after recent high profile hacks.
Multifactor authentication
Last month we highlighted how a password manager helps improve your security by simplifying the use of strong unique passwords. Once implemented, setting up Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) provides another layer of security, especially important for your cloud-based services. Even if a hacker steals your password, they won’t be able to access your account without the MFA code. Another key benefit of using a modern password manager is not only can it highlight sites where MFA is available, it can also store the relevant MFA codes, making the whole process very easy. This article by Expert Insights provides some useful information on why MFA is important.
Hacker franchises
2023 may have only just started but the hackers continue to plague all sorts of businesses. One recent high profile, and widely reported, victim was Royal Mail resulting in its inability to send items overseas for an extended period. The criminal group Lockbit is reported to be behind the ransomware, however, as this Guardian article notes, there is speculation that this was actually a “franchise” operation under a “Ransomware as a service” (RaaS) model. Becoming a hacker is as simple as purchasing the tools so, as the criminals become more creative, we need to do everything we can to avoid becoming a victim.