Hardwood Floors April/May 2019

You Are the First Line of Defense (Continued)

What each of us can do

Not all is lost With understanding comes awareness – awareness of how easy it is to have malware infect our systems and awareness of how one malicious email a achment downloaded and opened can be the di erence between working and not. Well-known antivirus company Symantec states that one in 13 web requests leads to malware. Even systems that previously weren’t targets are now seeing a rise in malware. Symantec reports that there was an 80 percent increase in newmalware on Mac computers in 2017, plus nearly 24,000 malicious mobile apps are blocked every day. is all sounds hopeless, like the criminals are smarter thanwe are andwe should just give up, right? I say no. In fact, I believe it’s easier – and cheaper – to be proactive and avoid these pitfalls before they happen. is awareness isn’tmeant to scare us, but to alert us to possible intruders. If we reacted to unknown entities on our computers the samewaywe actedwhen a stranger approaches our house, we might nd ourselves less susceptible to the threats identi ed previously and manymore.

Be the solution If proper precautions are taken, most infections can be avoided. To learnmore about protecting yourself frommalicious so ware and for tools to educate sta , visit the cybersecurity sections of the Federal TradeCommissionwebsite at FTC.gov andBe er Business Bureauwebsite at BBB.org. You’ll nd tips, tricks, toolkits, educational aids, examples of common cybercriminal tactics, andmore. Hire ITprofessionals that can speak to the threats you hear about in the news. Listen to their recommendations. Ask for help, be proactive, and train employees on these threats. Your business is worth it. Jodi O’Toole is Director of IT and Web Development at the National Wood Flooring Association in St. Louis. She can be reached at jodi.otoole@nwfa.org.

Step one is to secure our “home” in layers. Just like our homesmay have multiple forms of protection, so should our computer systems. Anti-malware so ware, antivirus protection, and spam lters are all necessary security expenses that we shouldwelcome to avoidmore extensive and costlier problems. Your IT sta or a consultant should be able to guide you in the right direction of these proactive solutions. Step two is to fully understand and train all sta on the potential threats andwhat we can do to avoid them. Simply put, don’t answer the door. Speci cally though, here are ve tips to ensurewe aren’t taken advantage of by cybercriminals: 1. Do not open emails or a achments frompeople you do not know. 2. If you know the sender, but he or she sends a link or document youweren’t expecting, don’t open it. Aquick phone call can verify it’s legitimate. 3. Make sure your systems are up to date. 4. Use passwords that are complex or lengthy/nonsensical passphrases; or be er yet, use a passwordmanager. 5. Ask for permission instead of forgiveness.When in doubt of the message, sender, link, or a achment, ask someone if you should open or click on it. It is simply not worth it to take a chance.

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