October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and this is something we’re pretty passionate about here at dock’d. So, we’ve came up with this short guide to help you understand what the threats are to businesses, how we mitigate the risks at dock’d and what else you can do to keep your business safe.
So, let’s look at the main ways that cybersecurity can be compromised and what it means.
Hacked and Scammed – What’s the Difference?
We’ve noticed that many people use the terms hacked and scammed interchangeably but they are far from the same thing.
If you’ve been hacked, it means that someone using their technological ability has gained access to your device or accounts. While scamming on the other hand, is when someone prompts you, usually via a link in a text or email, to give them your information.
How Does dock’d Mitigate Risk?
At a server level:
- We store our servers in a secure data center located within walking distance to one of offices.
- Each client has their own dedicated server and the data is encrypted in transit.
- Each server sits behind multiple firewalls.
- Our office looks like NASA – we have monitoring software for every server displayed so that we can see at a glance if there is any abnormal movement or spikes in usage and fix it immediately.
- We log EVERYTHING. We can see connections, who has logged in and when. We even log failed attempts to gain access.
- We have strong antivirus in place and we regularly update security patches.
At a client level:
- We perform nightly data backups that are sent offsite to a secondary secure location.
- We enforce minimum password standards with the options for owners and managers to enforce stricter password standards – including prompting their workforce to make frequent password updates.
- Each dock’d user has a dedicated account making it easy to suspend a user when their access to dock’d has been revoked.
- dock’d has a 30-minute idle auto logout function.
- We have optional 2FA (two-factor authentication) in place – if you would like help setting this up, please give the dock’d support team a call and we will walk you through it.
What Else Can You Do To Stay Safe?
- Keep your software updated – that goes for all software not just dock’d!
- Install good antivirus, malware and firewall solutions on your computers and devices. If you would like some help with this, give the dock’d support team a call and we can point you in the right direction.
- Use strong passwords – at least 8 characters, a mixture of upper and lower case, numbers and symbols.
- Learn to spot fake emails, websites and scams – this a great article to help you get started!
- Be careful when using free Wi-Fi – use your own Hotspot wherever possible.
- Be cautious when opening links and attachments, if in doubt confirm the source first.
It seems as though we’re hearing about a new cyber-attack or threat to cybersecurity on a daily basis. As we live more and more of our lives online, we become more and more exposed. Feeling as though your security has been compromised can be scary and for businesses, particularly working within the NDIS, the consequences of a breech could be devastating.
Knowing and understanding the cybersecurity steps your software provider is taking is the first step to mitigating risk. Then all you need to do is apply some simple but effective security solutions to make sure you’re keeping your business safe.
