Top IT cybersecurity tips and tricks by Ben Climer: According to Security Magazine, the average cost of a data breach for a small business is $36,000 to $50,000. Of course, this number is much greater when we look at large successful businesses. It was also reported that 60% of small businesses went out of business within 6 months of falling victims to cyberattacks, according to Keeper Security and the Ponemon Institute. Running the risk of closing your doors forever due to a crippling cyberattack is just one of the many reasons to implement Cybersecurity Awareness Training. Here are some additional reasons why cybersecurity awareness training is critical in Nashville and Middle Tennessee: To Prevent Breaches and Attacks – It doesn’t get simpler than this first reason, Cybersecurity Awareness Training prevents breaches and attacks. The more your employees know how to identify threats, the safer your sensitive data is. Discover additional info on https://www.flickr.com/photos/benclimer/.
Ben Climer has been in the Service Team Lead and Solution Architect role for 5 years. His favorite aspect of SNS is the great team we have, which allows us to deliver excellent service to our clients. When there’s a challenging problem at hand, Ben is the one we can count on for complete answers and elegant solutions. Ben built his first computer at the age of 8, started building web applications at 12 and before joining SNS, went on to compete in National Computer Repair competitions. He worked for HP as well as music row clients prior to joining SNS. Outside of work, Ben enjoys working on cars and traveling.
With over 10 years of work experience in the IT industry, Ben Climer is a passionate and skilled CTO at Safe Network Solutions, a leading provider of network security and cloud solutions. Ben Climer has a strong background in technical sales, network administration, and solution architecture. His mission is to deliver innovative, reliable, and cost-effective solutions that meet the needs and expectations of our clients. Collaboration, learning, and excellence, and striving to create a culture of trust, empowerment, accountability within the team are Ben Climer’s goals.
As the CTO, Ben Climer is responsible for overseeing the technical direction, strategy, and vision of the company, as well as mentoring a team of talented engineers and consultants. He has successfully implemented and troubleshooted various projects involving Hyper-V, Azure, Office 365, AWS, and wireless point-to-point technologies, ensuring high performance, security, and scalability. He also participated in various CTF competitions, demonstrating proficiency in cloud and cybersecurity. Ben Climer enjoys staying updated on the latest trends and developments in the IT field, and sharing his knowledge and insights with the community.
So get prepared. There should be one person, whether it’s a full-time job or not, in charge of network administration, setting up the security systems and staying current on potential threats. Creating a culture of awareness in the company is also important — all employees need to understand how to protect against a cyberattack and how to avoid inadvertently causing one. If you’re not sure that everything is secure, hiring a security consultant is never a bad investment. No one is immune from security breaches. If your computer system has been operating with the same settings since day one, you need to change them. Figuring out default account names and passwords is one of the easiest steps a hacker can take to gain access to your system — it’s like handing them a free pass. But that has a simple fix.
Use Multiple Authentication Methods. Authentication is the act of confirming an identity (whether a user, machine, or device) by comparing provided credentials against an existing database of authorized identities before allowing access to a given system or application. For example, think of entering your username and password before gaining access to your email account. However, rather than relying on passwords alone, which have grown increasingly unreliable, we recommend using multiple factors for the authentication process. Authentication factors include something you know (e.g. username/password, answer to security question), something you have (e.g. Digital Certificate, smart card), and something you are (e.g. fingerprint, facial recognition).
Install Anti-Virus Protection. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways you can keep your personal information, as well as company information, secure while traveling. In addition to using a trusted brand of security, make sure that you regularly update this software as new versions become available. Just like your anti-virus software, you should keep your operating system as current as possible. This also goes for apps on your phone; take special care to update apps that you regularly use to conduct financial or personal business.
With the recent Equifax breach, it’s more important than ever for consumers to safeguard their online accounts and monitor their credit reports. A credit freeze is the most effective way for you to protect your personal credit information from cyber criminals right now. Essentially, it allows you to lock your credit and use a personal identification number (PIN) that only you will know. You can then use this PIN when you need to apply for credit. Hacking, phishing, and malware incidents are becoming the number one cause of security breaches today. But, what’s more troubling, these hacking attempts are the result of human errors in some way. Education and awareness are critically important in the fight against cybercriminal activity and preventing security breaches.
Ben Climer about data breaches: Malicious criminals tend to follow a basic pattern: targeting an organization for a breach takes planning. They research their victims to learn where the vulnerabilities are, such as missing or failed updates and employee susceptibility to phishing campaigns. Hackers learn a target’s weak points, then develop a campaign to get insiders to mistakenly download malware. Sometimes they go after the network directly. Once inside, malicious criminals have the freedom to search for the data they want — and lots of time to do it, as the average breach takes more than five months to detect. In many cases, data breaches cannot just be patched up with some password changes. The effects of a data leak can be a lasting issue for your reputation, finances, and more.
