IT Security: a Must for Your Business

All round security

IT security is not only about online hacking. You could simply lose a mobile phone, or have a hard drive die. There could be a break-in at your business premises.

Here's some food for thought:

• don't imagine your business is safe from cyber-attacks because you use antivirus software. Cyber-attacks are many and varied;
  
• often small businesses do not have dedicated IT staff, leading to cyber security being overlooked or put in the 'too hard' basket. That's partly why cyber-criminals frequently target small businesses.

Although our clients are mostly at the smaller end of the business spectrum, some have suffered from ransomware attacks, hacked computers, data loss, failed hard drives. A very few clients have had their websites hacked (their websites were NOT built by SuttonNet!): eg a hacked PC led to CMS login credentials being stolen.

What you can do

There are simple sensible steps that you can take, without breaking the bank.

• Back up regularly. Store one set of backups off-site if you can.
• Update passwords from time to time. Use at least 8 characters, in a hard-to-crack combo of letters, numbers and special characters - not your pet's name. A pass phrase is even better than a password, especially if you mix in a few capital letters, numbers and a special character or two.
  We know it's a nuisance changing passwords. But compromised passwords are a bigger nuisance. Find out if your passwords have ever been exposed by a data breach at haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords.
• Contact your computer services specialist if your computer isn't running as usual (eg persistently slow Internet, can't access certain files)... this could indicate it's been hacked.
  
• Ask SuttonNet to install a Linux operating system for you if your business does not need software written specially for Windows. Linux O/S has some inherent features that help to protect it. Linux is a variety of Unix and it's free. (Unix based operating systems are used on Apple Macs too.)
  Contrary to rumour, Linux is not 'hard to use' or just for geeks. We have happy Linux clients with no special techno-talent. 
• Internet of Things (IoT) manufacturers were quick to sell to consumers, but slower to secure their products' Internet connectivity. This can compromise security of other devices on the same network. Check out this hacked car. Pay attention to what network you are using, and what else runs on it.
  There is a new IoT security standard on the way. There have been other attempts too such as ioXt.
  IoT is a powerful source of detailed data about consumers. Control or influence over its security protocols must be a colossal temptation for the evil minded.
  

  The Internet of Things refers to the ever-growing network of physical objects that feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled devices and systems.
  (Source: Webopedia)

• Public wifi can be a security nightmare. Not a good look, if your customers' data gets breached because you used the airport wifi on your dream holiday [which they funded for you].
  
• Ensure that all email accounts use secure TLS sending.
• Find out if you need other mail security.
• If your business is subject to the Australian Privacy Act, or if you transmit sensitive information via email, you should look into more comprehensive email security, eg email & document verification by digital signatures. We don't mean the sort where you paste in a jpg of your handwritten signature.

Webhosting

You've made a good start, hosting your website with SuttonNet. Our server is designed for and dedicated to SuttonNet use. There are no anonymous hackers sharing your website's host server and seeking to infiltrate other sites there. We know our clients, and we fully control and strictly limit access to the server interface.

Our web server infrastructure is managed by professionals with a long history and high reputation in business web, data and email hosting.

Website

All web software is NOT equal when it comes to security. Some well known names have a long history of internal weaknesses & bugs that have led to hundreds of sites being hacked. Bizazz is on the high-security end of the spectrum. Bil Sutton, who wrote the Bizazz software, worked on computer systems in Finance, Immigration & other key Commonwealth Government departments. That's a good foundation!

Your webpages are only secure if your own computer is free of malware that might read your passwords, keystrokes or more. Choose a good operating system that won't be easily compromised, and keep any anti-virus ware up to date. Also keep your Bizazz content management system login credentials safe.

Email

Think about what information is in your business emails, where this is stored (including emails forwarded from your business's own-domain email address to your other email accounts) and who might be able to access it, in your workplace or beyond. It's up to you to control access to devices that contain your emails.

IMAP email hosting stores your email on the mail server as well as on your computer/phone. Our email hosting service encrypts all emails stored on the server.

For POP accounts, new emails are stored temporarily on the mail server. Otherwise, all mail for a POP account is stored only on your phone/computer.

Visit our Email Security 101 and More on Email Security pages.

Last updated 27 September 2022