3 Ways to Prevent the Latest, Sneaky Hacker Threats

June 22, 2016 David Gemma
Posted by David Gemma on

Outsourced IT, Data Backup, Disaster Recovery & CyberSecurity

Protect Your Business 

Cyber Attacks Take Another Nasty, but Preventable, Turn

By Ken Rode, Director of IT Services, UNAPEN Inc., and a member of ASCII 

Recently there have been several high profile attacks against weak passwords and remote access utilities.

Like lions picking off the weakest gazelles in a herd, hackers are compromising weak systems in order to obtain passwords and then using those passwords in an attempt to access more secure systems.

People using TeamViewer, GoToMyPC and other remote access tools have been reporting unknown users taking over their systems.

All investigations have pointed to these victims using the same weak password on multiple systems and not enabling 2-factor authentication where it is available. See Two Factor Hack – Why Your Clients Might Not Be As Safe As You Think They Are!

People using good password policies and extra security where they can have been spared this nightmare.

I was even notified from a couple of hobby-related sites I belong to that the administrators of those sites are forcing password changes due to this issue.  See ‘Short Passwords Lead to Millions of Compromised Accounts’ in the UNAPEN May 2016 Newsletter.

 

So How Can You Protect Yourself?

Top 3 ways to reduce Hacker Threat:

  1. Use strong passwords… sentences, multiple character types, spaces, etc. – see How to Create a Strong Password and Remember It
  2. Use different passwords for each online service you use…particularly those that protect sensitive data. There are password managers you can use that help create, store and use multiple complex passwords – see The Best Password Managers for 2016 for a review. Personally, I like LastPass and Dashlane.
  3. Turn on additional security whenever it is available, …typically a one-time password sent via either email or text message…if available, text message is a better choice than email.

 

Proactively Protect Your Firm from Hackers!

To find out how to get flexible IT services at an affordable fixed monthly cost, check out UNAPEN ITComplete.

Have a Plan in Case Something Does Go Wrong!

To find out how to get comprehensive Data Backup, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery services, check out UNAPEN ITComplete DataSafe.