Home | How Technical Support Can Help in These 5 Cybersecurity Mistakes

How Technical Support Can Help in These 5 Cybersecurity Mistakes

April 29, 2022

Two women in an office setting, one seated and wearing a headset, typing on a keyboard. The other stands beside her, pointing at the computer screen.

Technical Support is necessary since the global damage of cybercrime has risen to an average of $11 million USD per minute.

60% of small and mid-sized companies that have a data breach end up closing their doors within six months because they can’t afford the costs. The costs of falling victim to a cyberattack can include loss of business, downtime/productivity losses, reparation costs for customers that have had data stolen, and more.

You may think that this means investing more in cybersecurity, and it is true that you need to have appropriate IT security safeguards in place (anti-malware, firewall, etc.). However, many of the most damaging breaches are due to common cybersecurity mistakes that companies and their employees make. This is where Technical Support come into play. With the help of a right IT Provider and IT Support, Companies may add an extra layer of security to their business.

According to the Sophos Threat Report of 2021, which looked at thousands of global data breaches, found that what it termed “everyday threats” were some of the most dangerous. A report stated “A lack of attention to one or more aspects of basic security hygiene has been found to be at the root cause of many of the most damaging attacks we’ve investigated.”

Is your company making a dangerous cybersecurity mistake that is leaving you at high risk for a data breach, cloud account takeover, or ransomware infection?

Here are several of the most common missteps when it comes to basic IT security best practices.

Not Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

 

Identity theft has become the top cause of data breaches around the world, according to IBM Security. Since most companies nowadays use cloud-based on their data and processes, login credentials hold the key to multiple types of attacks on company networks.

Not protecting your user logins with multi-factor authentication is a common mistake and one that leaves companies at a much higher risk of falling victim to a breach. Companies Technical Support Department should advise the management to implement the MFA as part of the new employees training/onboarding.

MFA reduces false sign-in attempts by an unbelievable 99.9%.

Ignoring the Use of Shadow IT with the help of Technical Support

Two customer service representatives wearing headsets work on laptops at a wooden desk.

Shadow IT is the cloud applications that employees used for business data that haven’t been approved and may not even be known about by a company. Prohibiting the use of Shadow IT without Technical Support is a must.

The Shadow IT use leaves companies at risk for several reasons:

  • The Data will probably use in a non-secure application
  • This Data is prohibiting the inclusion in company backup strategies
  • Those Data disappear if the employee leaves.
  • The company compliance requirement might not meet the app system

Employees often begin using apps on their own because they’re trying to fill a gap in their workflow and are unaware of the risks involved with using an app that hasn’t been vetted by their company’s IT team.

Cloud use policies in place is very important to have. This is for employees to spell out the applications that can and cannot used for work.

Companies may figure out that their IT Central department is inefficient. But for security Technical Support should give a high attention when it comes to the use of Shadow IT.

Thinking You’re Fine With Only an Antivirus Application without

Technical Support

No matter how small your business is, a simple antivirus application is not enough to keep you protected. In fact, many of today’s threats don’t use a malicious file at all.

Phishing emails will contain commands sent to legitimate PC systems that aren’t flagged as a virus or malware. Phishing also overwhelmingly uses links these days rather than file attachments to send users to malicious sites. The simple antivirus solutions may not detect those links.

You need to have a multi-layered strategy in place that includes things like:

  • Next-gen anti-malware (uses AI and machine learning)
  • Next-gen firewall
  • Email filtering
  • DNS filtering
  • Automated application and cloud security policies
  • Cloud access monitoring

Having a multi-layered security with the help of Technical Support in assisting may prevent the data breaches.

Not Having Device Management In Place and Technical Support

A marble desk with an open laptop, glasses, wireless earbuds, a mouse, a pencil, notebooks, and a small plant.

A majority of companies around the world have had employees working remotely from home since the pandemic, and they’re planning to keep it that way. However, remote employee devices such as smartphones for business are not the primary concern. Device management must accomplish.

If you’re not managing security or data access for all the endpoints (company and employee-owned) in your business, you’re at a higher risk of a data breach.

If you don’t have one already, it’s time to put a device management application in place, like Intune in Microsoft 365.

Ask help from your Technical Support team as they are the common persons who are knowledgeable for this.

Not Providing Adequate Training to Employees by Technical Support Representatives

About 95% of cybersecurity breaches are from human error. Too many companies don’t take the time to continually train their employees, and thus users haven’t developed the skills needed for a culture of good cybersecurity.

Throughout the year, Employee IT security awareness training should execute. This training should not just undertake yearly or during an onboarding process. The more you keep IT security front and center, the better equipped your team will be to identify phishing attacks and follow proper data handling procedures.

Some ways to give cybersecurity training into your company culture include:

  • Short training videos
  • IT security posters
  • Webinars
  • Team training sessions
  • Cybersecurity tips in company newsletters

When Did You Last Have an IT Check?

Don’t stay in the dark about your IT security unprotected. Schedule a cybersecurity check to uncover threat so they can be secured to reduce your risk.

To avoid these Cybersecurity mistakes, IT Companies that provides IT/Technical Support like CloudConsole understands the risk that may occur to your business.

CloudConsole offers expert IT services for your office Data protection. Focus on your business and we will take care of the IT. Call us today at  (632) 8231 2520 or send us an email info@cloudconsole.ph


Featured Image Credit

This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.