The recent serious Optus and Medibank data breaches are a reminder that Cyber Security threats are very real and can take down even the largest companies. In Australia 30,000 cyber crimes are committed each year, many against small and medium sized businesses. If your business isn’t taking steps to protect your data, you could be putting your business, employees and customers at risk. 

The key theme for this year’s Cyber Security Awareness Month is ‘Have you been hacked?’ There are some simple things individuals and businesses can do to avoid being hacked including: 

1. Turning on automatic software updates
2. Backing up devices
3. Switching on multi-factor authentication
4. Using passphrases
5. Securing mobile devices
6. Being aware of cyber scams

The Australian Cyber Security centre (ACSC) has launched the ‘Have you been hacked?’ tool to help you assess if you’ve been hacked. It shares typical warning signs and the steps to take if a hack occurs. It covers various scenarios including: 

• Ransomware attacks
• Malware threats
• Email compromise
• Identify theft
• Phishing and fake website scams

The ACSC has also introduced a quiz ‘How secure are you?’, which is a great way to assess whether you’re at risk of a hack. 

The ACSC has also launched several resources to protect your data from cyber criminals including: 

Keeping your email secure

• How to check your email account security – Outlook
• How to check your email account security – Gmail
• What to do if someone has hacked your email account

Basic cyber security practices

• Quiz: Multi-factor authentication
• Secure your Google account
• Secure your Microsoft account
• Protect your business from email fraud & compromise
• Quiz: Would you know what to do if you were a victim of business email compromise?
• Phishing - Scam Emails
• Quiz: Can you spot a scam (phishing) message?

Securing accounts and devices

• Update your devices
• Protect yourself: Updates guide
• Protect Yourself: Multi-Factor Authentication guide
• Quiz: Backups
• Quiz: Passphrases
• Quiz: Can you spot signs of a scam?
• Watch out for threats

These resources are a great place to start, but if you want to make sure you are comprehensively protected against Cyber Security risks, talk to IT&T.