5 Practical Security Tips for Everyone

The Christmas break is almost here again and most of us are looking forward to a well-deserved break, but for business owners and office managers the empty office can be a great time to catch up on those jobs that have eluded you all year while there is no breathing room for making changes to your IT systems.  With this in mind, I thought I would compile a (very compact) list of security tips essential to any business that could be set up in an afternoon while the office is quiet.

Password security – It's an old one, but in this day and age I'm constantly surprised by people using their username, the word password, or even the letter "a" as a password in business environments.  Any server/client environment will allow you to set a minimum security standard for your system that will be automatically enforced.  A combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols makes for the most secure password.

Remove access for outgoing staff – When staff members part ways with your business, you wouldn't allow them to keep a key to the front door so they could let themselves in and out as they pleased.  In the same way their access to your computer system should be locked down immediately.  Chances are, your system contains all of your business's most sensitive data – data that if you were to lose, you would be unable to do business without.

One extreme example was the catastrophic breach that a large company encountered last year, when a disgruntled former employee who still had access to their system wiped their hard drives – and their backups – clean.  The business was crippled and before lunchtime ads from their competitors were all over the internet advertising discounts and immediate reinstatement of service if they switched to their service.

Be cautious of what you post on social media & company websites – Everyone likes to share their holiday activities with friends and family, and everyone likes to have a little time out of the office at Christmas too, but be aware of who has the ability to view your social media posts and what you are putting out there.  Sometimes it can be far worse than unflattering Christmas party photographs - a few unlucky people come home from a couple of days away to find that they have had their home or business broken into because they publicized their absence on Facebook.

Backup your data – There really is no substitute for a well-considered backup strategy.  No matter what happens, you should always have a copy of your data comprehensive enough to carry on as if nothing ever happened.  This does require some investment though – it's important to stop and consider often whether any changes you have made to your systems (New users, programs, or drives) are being included in your backup.  There is also the question of making sure that you have at least one of your backups off site at all times – whether it's physically taken with you or online – if the building burns down and all your backups are on site, that’s always going to be a problem.

Invest in perimeter defence- No business should be without a good internet security suite, not just for keeping your system free of virus and spyware infection that will hinder productivity, but also to protect against unauthorized intrusion, malicious damage, and data theft.  These types of software can be time consuming, and a firewall can be frustrating to setup correctly, but the payoff is worth the investment.

Just following these five basic pointers will drastically improve the security of any network, giving your business the security it needs to be successful.  I hope these tips prove helpful, and with all the serious stuff over and done with, I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous Christmas break from myself and on behalf of the whole team here at Myrtec.

Ryan Innes

I.T. Consultant

Ryan comes from a strong background in customer service and has recently joined the Myrtec team as an IT consultant.

Ryan grew up in Scotland and moved to Australia in 2001 in search of higher opportunities. Ryan holds a Bachelor degree in Information Technology (Applications Major), and a Diploma in Network Engineering. He is currently working towards the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008 qualification.

Contact Ryan directly by emailing ryan.innes@myrtec.com.au