Life Happens 365 - Are You Managing the Risk?

  By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay If you’ve like to surf the web, then you realize cybersecurity is a very pressing necessity.   That’s because you can’t read a newsfeed without bumping into a post about hackers.   Everyone from Fortune 500 companies to consumers and kids are being hacked these days.   That’s because hacking is big business.   The FBI recently reported that hackers cost the US economy more than $4.2 billion in 2020.   Hackers use every kind of trick in the book to put a hook in their victims.   Everything from phishing and clickbait to ratting and ransomware is being used to break into web-enabled devices of all kinds.   Sad to say, if you share and receive data, make payments and shop online, you risk having your personal and financial data compromised.   While you may have one or more layers of cybersecurity software on your devices, if you inadvertently accept a poisoned email or click on a corrupted link, you could...

  By Diane Tait You see and hear about them on the news every week. Cybersecurity breaches are no longer the stuff of science fiction.   When they occur to Fortune 500 companies and millions of consumer records are compromised, they make the headlines.   What isn’t publicized is the fact that thousands of smaller businesses are hacked every day and the numbers are growing.   So too are the damages caused by hackers.   No matter how prepared the average business is, once hackers set their sites on gaining access it’s only a matter of time before data is compromised, malware is planted, and/or a server is locked down by a DDOS attack or ransomware.   What’s worse is the fact that the ransom demanded by hackers has skyrocketed from an average of $10,000 per incident in 2019 to more than $200,000 in 2020.   Once your system has been infected, it could be days, weeks, or months before your business is back in business.  

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr One of the biggest items on most American’s shopping list this year was technology.   Whether Santa’s list included a new laptop, tablet or cellphone, the arrival of the latest model leaves most people wondering what to do with the old one.   While selling, donating or regifting secondhand tech sounds like a good idea in principle, I’m here to tell you that if you aren’t careful, you could wind up giving away more than you had hoped.   That’s because computers and smartphones contain sensitive and valuable information on them that can be used to cause you grief.   Before you wind up getting Grinched by savvy cyber-criminals, there are a few things you need to do before you pass on any technology.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr If you’re like me, you probably never go anywhere without your smartphone.   You probably also have a plethora of web-enabled devices around your home and office.   If you drive a late model automobile you realize that everything from your vehicle’s GPS to the satellite radio you love to listen to as you motor down the interstate are all tracking your location and your preferences with every mile that passes by.   While most modern Americans would be lost without many of the modern technological conveniences that we feel we can no longer do without, I’m here to tell you that all those electronic bells and whistles don’t come without a certain amount of baggage.   Today’s smart devices track our movements, listen to what we say and records all our interactions with our friends, family and coworkers.   With the loss of privacy come several perils to not only our freedom, but our financial security as well.  

By Diane Tait Image courtesy of Pixabay Every month it seems you read about another high-profile business that has been hacked by cybercriminals.   Whether it involves the theft of data from a big box store, or from one of the credit reporting bureaus that store all our data, these breaches affect all of us.   What most business owners don’t realize is that they are living on borrowed time if they don’t take the time to address this issue and secure their digital domain soon.   To help you assess how well-prepared your business is to deal with cybercrime, I have come up with 10 ways cybercrime can ruin your business.