Cybersecurity in the Age of COVID

 

During the surprise bonus episode of our webinar series, The Lunchbox Leaders, we heard from Brian Dykstra, the President and CEO of Atlantic Data Forensics, a cybersecurity company specializing in investigations, computer forensics, incident response, network, and wireless security testing, and information security. 

As an expert in the reactive side of network security, Brian shared what happens AFTER the discovery of ransomware or a security breach. 

“Turns out, bad things do happen,” Brian shared. “In fact, the most bad things are going to happen in your company from 8:00 pm on a Friday evening to 8:00 am on a Monday morning—that’s the hacker’s favorite time to strike because they know people aren’t paying attention since it’s the weekend. Long weekends are also prime attack time.”  

Brian emphasized the importance of treating network security as a process, not as a product. For instance, many companies make the mistake of adopting cloud-based services and assuming that the host platform will maintain their network security for them. However, while these platforms provide the tools for network security it is up to the business to monitor and utilize them to ensure network security. Network security is a matter of vigilance and consistent monitoring rather than an “end product” your business can purchase.

Based upon the Incident Response support to hundreds of organizations in a wide variety of industries, small and large, Brian shared three easy ways to ensure network security:

 

Three Ways to Ensure Network Security

• Good perimeter control. Make sure your firewall is actually doing its job. Do not simply log what is rejected by the firewall, have someone periodically review the dashboard. In addition, remember that cloud-based computing platforms should have firewalls in place as well.
• 2-factor authentication (2FA) & multi-factor authentication (MFA). At a minimum, apply 2FA to Administrator accounts and ensure that your logs actually show you who logged in and from where.
• Antivirus/Anti-malware. Antivirus and anti-malware should be installed on everything to fully protect your organization. This includes laptops & desktops, servers, email, firewalls, and the Cloud. Remember not to skip Macs—these devices are vulnerable to viruses too. 

We were so glad to host Brian in our final installment of the Lunchbox Leaders series. Our vision has been to help educate our community on how organizations and individuals can protect themselves in today’s cybersecurity threat landscape. We hope you found this episode, and our series of webinars, insightful!

Remember the team at PGH Networks can help you develop a strategic and layered approach to your network’s security and protect you from cyber-attacks. Want to learn more: contact us today. 

In case you missed our surprise episode (or would like to rewatch it), you can find the full recording online.