2014 could go down as the year we all lost any remaining confidence in the ability of man-made computer software to withstand man-made computer security breaches.
- In December, an embarrassing major breach of Sony Corporation’s servers by hackers who have ties to North Korea (according to media reports quoting unnamed FBI agents).
- In April, it was the Heartbleed bug, a potential security breach in nearly 20% of the internet’s web servers
- In May, Ebay had to ask 140 million users to change their passwords.
- Also in May, the FBI revealed that it had detained 90 individuals in several countries who have distributed the “Blackshades Remote Access Tool (RAT)
- In August, a Russian crime ring amassed 1.2 billion username and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses.
To help SmallBusiness.com users attempt to prevent such security breaches from impacting your company’s data, we’ve run several items with how-to help and actions you can take to keep the bad guys away.
Here are some of those helpful tips:
How Hackers Use ‘Social Engineering’ and How to Prevent It
“Social engineering” refers to a type of hacking that resembles a confidence game, or “conning.” Essentially hackers are trying to get someone to provide them with a missing piece of information, one they need to put together an elaborate puzzle to be used in gaining access to an account. (…)
Ten Tips From the FCC for Improving Your Small Business Cyber Security
Establish basic security practices and policies for employees, such as requiring strong passwords, and establish appropriate Internet use guidelines that detail penalties for violating company cybersecurity policies. (…)
What is Two-Step Verification and Why You Should Start Using Them
While the term may sound overly techy and confusing, the concept is something we’re all familiar with as we’ve used it for decades–every time we’ve used an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). (…)
(Illustration: SmallBusiness.com; Photo: Clarence Leung via Flickr.com; CC BY 2.0)