Companies (and individuals) who don’t back-up their data regularly put their business at risk. Imagine being called early in the morning just to be told that your entire network is locked up in a ransomware attack and you must pay a hefty ransom because you kept thinking that it would never happen to you, or if one of your employees deletes an important file (whether maliciously or not) or in the worst of cases, hardware failure.

You’ve seen it. You’ve probably even experienced it. For what feels like forever now, just about everyone has been forced to modify priorities. As a business owner, you’ve probably been focused on shifting your business to accommodate this world crisis.

The world is slowing down during this COVID-19 pandemic. Wall Street is being hit hard. People are no longer going out. We’re told to quarantine or self-isolate and not engage in groups.

You can bet there’s one group that’s not slowing down at all.

Now that  many companies are instituting work from home, this plan opens the door for hackers implementing phishing email attacks. Here are some strategies to use to protect yourself from phishing scams:

You will most likely have vendors reaching out to you asking to get paid via ACH. You need to verify these via phone call and NOT RELY ON EMAIL ONLY.
Any request for changing banking info, payroll info (new bank accounts etc), requests for copies of W2 forms/1099 should also be verified via the phone.

Keeping your computer software up-to-date is critical to protecting you from the latest threats.
The truth is it’s very easy to skip software updates but what you might not realize, is that these updates are for a reason, and brushing them aside can be a big mistake.

When Employees Reuse Their Passwords...
 
More Than Half of Your Employees Are Most Likely Reusing Passwords Across Their Business and Personal Accounts.
We are all plagued with password issues; creating them, remembering them and routinely changing them.