Questions about our Services? Call Us: 432.889.1678

NewsWest 9 Interview: Cyber Security

 

NewsWest 9 Interview: Most common passwords of 2016 are a security threat

9by John Pitts 
Owner of MidessaTech

Today I had the pleasure of speaking on air with NewsWest9's  Roxanna Rubio about Cyber Security and passwords. 

In light of recent news on hacking Midessatech has compiled a short list of tips for protecting yourself online.

PASSWORDSThe new standard for password complexity is 12 characters or more a combination of letters numbers and special characters. This can be hard to remember and complicated but here are a couple tricks to help you out.  Put a significant event with a date and special characters in your password. For example: In1984IworeCowboyboot$  Another example would be a favorite car: Idrovemy1976fiat2school!

One thing you notice about these passwords they put capitalization in the middle as well as the punctuation and special characters. This is another recommendation from Top Security Experts not putting your capitalization or your punctuation at the end, but somewhere in the middle. Length is strength!  The longer your password is the better, length is more secure than complexity.

BACKUP:  The biggest threat we have seen in recent months has been RANSOMWARE.  It is a type of virus that scrambles your data and encrypt it making it completely unusable and less you pay the "Ransom". This virus can infect all the backup drives you may have and other network drives that your computer is attached to.  We recommend a strong offsite backup regimen using carbonite and portable hard drives to protect your computer data.

ANTIVIRUS:  A highly rated antivirus software program is an essential part of your security regimen.  It needs to be updated yearly and compared to its competition on the market to see if it is still the most effective solution. You should update and run a scan every month at least.

GOOD HABITS A lot of  hacking occurs through 'social engineering'. By sending out an email that said "I love you" back in the early 2000s the I love you virus was able to infect millions of people because everybody wants to hear 'I love you'. By exploiting human nature they get past our defenses.  Be suspicious when you open attachments.  Even from trusted sources.  They can be compromised without the sender even knowing it.  If they email a  zip or exe file, be doubly sure that you don't click on it unless you absolutely know it's from a trusted source.  When SHOPPING ONLINE, do your homework, make sure the link to the website is genuine and guard your private information carefully.  This article from StaySafeOnline.org explains in depth. 

You can read a more in-depth Cyber Security checklist here. 

For a more complete CyberSecurity Accessment call  Midessatech for a consultation at  432.704.2583.  We have developed a 3 part PC Plan setup to protect our users that you can subscribe to.  It includes security, support and offsite backup.  Hackers work invisibly, just because you dont see them doesnt mean they arent attacking us every day.  Be vigilant and be smart about cyber security.

KWES9Roxanna










Visit KWES NewsWest9 for the video Interview.
   
Thank you Roxanna Rubio!