It’s important to maintain computer health and ensure that equipment is functioning properly. Schools, small businesses and government organizations all depend on their computing equipment on a day-to-day basis – and if those systems are compromised in any way, it can have devastating impacts on important data and other critical functions. As computer systems become more sophisticated, so do hackers. Therefore, it’s of the utmost importance to ensure system health and keep hackers out of the network.
How does your business protect itself against hackers? More likely than not, your IT network is vulnerable at one or more points. Here are three quick tips for keeping your system safe from hackers:
1. Keep employees abreast of policy changes
Your business is only as safe as the people accessing the Internet – meaning, your employees can make or break your hacker protection. It’s important to put Internet access policies in place so that employees know what websites are okay to visit and what to look for in an unsafe email. As phishing schemes become more popular and are focusing more targeted attacks on employee emails, it’s crucial to educate workers on what kinds of emails and attachments are okay to open and which aren’t.
2. Invest in layered endpoint protection
Another potential chink in your system’s armor could be a lack of anti-virus software. According to CNN, a recent study revealed that in 2014, more than 317 million new pieces of malware were created, which amounts to nearly 1 million new malware programs per day. Malware can come in many forms, from Trojans to spyware to ransomware, and if your system doesn’t have an adequate anti-virus program in place, you could be vulnerable to attack.
Antivirus from Faronics offers complete protection of your assets with a layered approach. It combines anti-virus software, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, firewall and web filter in one solution, making it difficult for hackers to surmount these defenses.
3. Keep your firewall updated
Your first line of defense against hackers should be an updated firewall. The firewall limits points of access and scans each packet of data that travels throughout the system to ensure that the data doesn’t represent a danger to the network, because a compromised system comes at a high price. IBM’s most recent data from its annual Cost of Data Breach Study indicated that the average consolidated total cost of a data breach is $3.8 million. This is a staggering 23 percent increase since 2013. In addition, even if you have a firewall installed, it won’t protect your data effectively unless you also make sure to keep it updated.
It’s possible that malware or hackers can infiltrate your system if you’re not following these guidelines. In the event that settings are changed or data is stolen, it can be a good idea to invest in a solution like Deep Freeze from Faronics. Deep Freeze is a reboot to restore software that takes a snapshot of system configurations and restores them to that state in the event of an attack.
Contact Faronics today to see how we can help you keep your systems safe.