The 3 Common Cybersecurity Mistakes You Must Avoid

There isn’t much that isn’t done online during our daily lives. We book trips, do grocery shopping, and even do our banking online. It’s a beautiful thing to do this all from the comfort of our homes or on our phones. However, it poses a big security risk.

If you run a business that handles the data of the people doing things online, you need to make sure you are handling cybersecurity the right way. There are a lot of mistakes that are made by companies with regard to their security. With the right knowledge and security technology in place, we can make sure data is secure. In this article, we will cover the mistakes to avoid.

1 – Neglecting software updates 

One of the easiest ways to protect data is also one of the most overlooked. Updating software is often ignored because many people don’t deem it worthy of attention. However, when software is not updated, it can be an invitation to hackers to try to get in.

This is because many updates are patches to the security of the code. Over time, their quality assurance testers will look at the code of many software programs and they often find vulnerabilities. They close these loopholes and send the changes out in a software update.

You might find it annoying to pause your work and wait for an update to finish. That short wait could save you from a lot of trouble down the line. It can stop hackers from stealing your important data or causing havoc in your systems.

2 – No backing up data

Security is not just about your data being vulnerable to hackers and being stolen. Things can happen that will wipe out your important files including the data that you need to do business.

Backing up data regularly is a way to make sure that if something happens there is a copy that can easily be accessed.

For instance, if an employee’s hard drive is compromised because it got wet or damaged, then the data on it will be lost forever. Or, there could be a storm that short circuits the server and data is wiped out as a result.

If data is backed up to a secure location, these events will have little effect. Having a backup means you can restore your data and get back to work.

3 – Not training employees

One of the big mistakes businesses make is not training their employees about cybersecurity. It’s not enough to have good security systems in place. The people using those systems should know how to use them safely.

The problem is that technology is always changing. This means that employees need to be brought up to speed on the latest innovations. Without doing this, there could be problems when employees don’t know how to work the current security systems.

For example, phishing techniques have gotten sophisticated. Employees should be able to spot a phishing email right away but won’t if they aren’t trained properly.