Thank goodness, it's Friday, you say to yourself as you leave the office. You'd love nothing more than to go home and turn on a comedy. But when you get to your house, you realize the movie isn't on Netflix or Hulu. No problem, you say to yourself. You can always find it free on an unauthorized streaming site.
Within a few minutes, you have your movie; completely unaware a malware infection has weaseled its way into your laptop. Come Monday it will infect your whole company.
Whether we like to admit it or not, employees are often the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. But workers aren't entirely to blame. Business leaders need to do more to educate their employees about online risks.
Then again, accidents do happen and hackers can be especially tricky. That's why it's a good idea to invest in cyber coverage through a reputable provider.
Downloading Movies Illegally
As mentioned above, visiting illegal streaming websites is incredibly dangerous, as they often contain drive-by malware downloads that attach themselves to your computer without consent.
Just how bad is this problem? It depends on what you are watching and how you watch it. Experts claim 50 percent of sports streaming sites are infected; as is roughly one in five music downloads containing the words 'free MP4,' 'torrent' or 'HD download.'
The solution? Stick to safe sites and legitimate services such as YouTube, Hulu or Netflix.
Visiting Sketchy Websites
Of course, streaming sites aren't the only sketchy web pages on the internet. Hackers can corrupt genuine websites too. Heck, they can even insert malicious links into forums or social media updates. One quick click and "“ BOOM "“ you've been breached.
So how do you avoid these shady areas of the world wide web? Well, that's the problem. It's hard to tell sometimes. Do yourself a favor and keep all your software and antivirus protections up to date. This is your best chance.
Forwarding Work to Personal Email Address
Sometimes employees like to redirect work emails to a personal email address or mobile device. As harmless as this may seem, you are actually increasing your chances of suffering a major data breach.
If you still prefer to share files between your office network and your personal devices, it's better to leverage a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This will keep your important data under the same umbrella of protection, wherever you are.
Note that this is also recommended for working over public Wi-Fi.
Letting Your Kids Use Your Computer
As you can tell, it takes a certain level of discretion to avoid cyber infection. However, your kids might not have the same security awareness that you would. So think twice before allowing your children to use your work computer.
A better idea is to designate different devices for different activities. For example, your personal mobile phone can have games, apps and more "“ while your work computer is used solely for business. This way you can rest a little easier.
Still, the best thing you can do for your company's cyber resiliency is to invest in cyber coverage before you are hit by an attack. Visit CyberPolicy for your free quote now!
