October is European Cyber Security Month in the European Union. ECSM is the annual campaign in the EU to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats, promote cybersecurity in business and at home and disseminate good practice with the aim to protect data and people while online.
The main focus of ECSM this year is cyber hygiene. Cyber hygiene means the steps you can take and implement to maintain the health of your computer and IT infrastructure to improve online security. The notion of cyber-hygiene can be traced back to Vint Cerf, Google’s current “chief Internet evangelist.” The American developer says he thought of the idea when brushing his teeth, but cyber hygiene is the toothpaste for your computer.
Cyber hygiene means being proactive about your cybersecurity. Simply put, this means taking preventative rather than causal action. Just as you would routinely brush your teeth, so you should establish solid cyber hygiene practices.
At the core of cyber hygiene is using reputable antivirus and malware software, a network firewall, and password protection all help to protect personal data stored on your workstations or home computer. This doe, you’ll know that you have done almost as much as you can to protect your devices and your invaluable data.
Some other steps for excellent cyber hygiene are:
- Use multi-factor authentication
- Employ device encryption
- Back up regularly
- Keep your hard drive clean
- Secure your router
- Keep up to date with what’s going on in the world of cybersecurity technology
At Zhero, we don’t take cybersecurity for granted – and neither should you. Cybersecurity underpins most of our managed services and we offer specialized Cyber Essentials Scheme Assessments.
Cyber Essentials is recognised as a starting point on your cybersecurity journey, as your needs grow we’re partnering with MTI’s CHECK and CREST Penetration Testing team to provide more advanced testing from our portfolio of over 30 innovative assessments in addition to compliance-related consultancy for areas such as ISO 27001 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to ensure improvements in your cybersecurity protection.
