Keeping Your Network Secure From Day ONE

By now you’ve probably heard about the recent security incidents involving the City of Wichita and Ascension Health Care.  While we don’t know the details about what happened at either entity and may never truly know, I do want to take a minute and share how you can reduce the likelihood of it happening to your network.

Implement multi-factor authentication for email and include phishing training and email security for all users.  The most common entry point into a network is through an email that runs a macro, downloads a file, or leads you to a malicious web page.  From this point a malicious party can jump to other devices on the network, read and respond to your email, and make copies of your data and then encrypt your data.

Don’t count on antivirus software.  The standard in our industry now is “managed detection and response” services that watch what your computer is doing and decide if it should be doing that or not and can react if needed.

Practice “least privilege.”  Ask yourself if everyone (including you) needs to be “admins” on your computer.  If your credentials are compromised and someone has access to your PC, they have the same level of access that you do.

Use secure remote access.  First, do you really need it?  Have you removed access for employees that have left?  If you do have remote access enabled, make sure it’s secured by multi-factor authentication.

Practice good password hygiene.  Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts.  If you fall for a phishing email and a malicious party has your email password, you don’t want that to also be the same password for your online banking, payroll system, and Amazon account.

Lastly, plan for the worst.  Have a disaster recovery plan.  Make sure you have offsite backups that aren’t on the same network and aren’t secured by the same password.  Make sure you test a recovery from those backups and have at least thought about what to do if there is an incident.

There is a lot more technical stuff that goes on top of this, but these steps are a great start.  If your current IT firm is doing this for you, great.  If you’re not sure, ask them.  If you don’t like their answer or just want a second opinion, please reach out.  I’m happy to talk with you.  Regardless of if you use us or not, improving the IT security of our community is in the best interest of all of us.