Vulcan Business Solutions Blog

Three common sense data safety reminders When it comes to smaller and medium sized businesses, anything that distracts from the day to day concerns about bringing in revenue tends to fall by the wayside. With that in mind, we have put together a list of seven things that a small business needs to prioritize if you want to keep your business up and running. Remember, a cyber attack on your data security could be the biggest threat to your revenues that you face, even more serious than a recession or a pandemic Software Everything you have uses software programs, all of which can be vulnerable to hacking. Make sure all of your software programs are up-to-date. Software companies release program updates, security patches and critical updates for their applications. In addition to providing new features or fixing bugs in the program, these updates and patches prevent cybercriminals from exploiting the vulnerabilities that exist in the program to gain access to your network and dat

Open sesame! Life is not a fairy tale…your passwords need to be stronger than that You will agree that having passwords to access your IT devices, networks and data is the first step to securing your business data. However, having passwords is not enough. The passwords have to be strong and difficult to detect or hack into. A lot of ‘smart’ devices today such as phones, tablets and laptops come with facial recognition and fingerprint sensors that can be used in lieu of passwords. But what happens when you don’t have biometric security measures? You need to ensure that your passwords are strong and also maintain good password hygiene. Maintaining good password hygiene involves- Not having passwords that are too simple or easy to crack. Ideally, a password should be at least 12 characters long, mixed case, alphanumeric and include symbols. Not using the same password across different sites, programs or systems. For example, having the same password for your email and laptop is a strict

Fix that lock…and get a spare key! Software updates, security patches and data backups If the lock to your home’s main door breaks, do you fix it or just let it be? My guess is, you would get a locksmith to fix it for you at the earliest. And, what do you do if you lose the key? Use the spare key, if you have one, to get into your home, right? The situation is kind of similar when it comes to security patches and updates for your software programs. Credible software manufacturers make sure the software programs they develop offer an acceptable level of data security. However, no software is perfect and knowing this well, cybercriminals constantly work to find vulnerabilities in popular software programs that they can exploit to gain access to your data. Security patches and software updates work to prevent this by fixing or patching the vulnerabilities. So, you need to take the time to make sure that all of your software applications, including operating systems, and browsers are up-

Open sesame! Life is not a fairy tale…your passwords need to be stronger than that You will agree that having passwords to access your IT devices, networks and data is the first step to securing your business data. However, having passwords is not enough. The passwords have to be strong and difficult to detect or hack into. A lot of ‘smart’ devices today such as phones, tablets and laptops come with facial recognition and fingerprint sensors that can be used in lieu of passwords. But what happens when you don’t have biometric security measures? You need to ensure that your passwords are strong and also maintain good password hygiene. Maintaining good password hygiene involves- Not having passwords that are too simple or easy to crack. Ideally, a password should be at least 12 characters long, mixed case, alphanumeric and include symbols. Not using the same password across different sites, programs or systems. For example, having the same password for your email and laptop is a strict

Fix that lock…and get a spare key! Software updates, security patches and data backups If the lock to your home’s main door breaks, do you fix it or just let it be? My guess is, you would get a locksmith to fix it for you at the earliest. And, what do you do if you lose the key? Use the spare key, if you have one, to get into your home, right? The situation is kind of similar when it comes to security patches and updates for your software programs. Credible software manufacturers make sure the software programs they develop offer an acceptable level of data security. However, no software is perfect and knowing this well, cybercriminals constantly work to find vulnerabilities in popular software programs that they can exploit to gain access to your data. Security patches and software updates work to prevent this by fixing or patching the vulnerabilities. So, you need to take the time to make sure that all of your software applications, including operating systems, and browsers are up-