password policies

There is a lot more to maintaining a good cybersecurity program than the five important items mentioned here, especially if you are in a high-compliance line of work such as healthcare or government contracting. But it’s an excellent place for small and medium organizations to start.

How skeptical are you when you get an email, purporting to be from your boss, asking you to buy gift cards for the staff? How do you weigh the subtle red flags contained in that email versus wanting to just do your job?

For many of us, our mobile devices hold as much or more, sensitive data than our workstations or desktops. So why should adequate security on our phones be any different?

At EXP, we strongly believe in the web of protection that must exist to properly guard institutions and their data from these threats. This web is comprised of several things. Many of these are technological tools that keep threats from ever entering your environment, let alone being executed within it. Unfortunately, all the gates, checkpoints and filters cannot prevent human error\action – frequently the last stop on the cyberthreat train. Humans must be informed users of technology for our web of protection to remain whole.

We regularly see cases of successful phishing attacks. Most of them involve people being conned into sharing valuable personal information with unauthorized parties. This is usually done over email but sometimes involves a phone call.

A frequent scam goes like this. You receive an email from someone claiming to work at an organization you trust or regularly interact with such as your bank or a retailer you often shop with. They seem legitimate because they have likely gathered some accurate information about you from social media, your company website, press releases, or other public means. Since they get a few details right, you may be inclined to believe them. But you must dig deeper to determine if the request is legitimate.

You may be asked for personal information that could be used to access funds — credit card numbers, bank account information, passwords, etc. — or even asked to wire money. All this is done, of course, under false pretenses. And it could cost your business a heap of money and hassle.