* By Otto Pohlmann
Roland Berger, a German consultancy, carried out a survey on cyber attacks last year and Brazil ranked 5th among the countries that suffered the most cyber attacks, totaling more than 9.1 million in the first quarter of the year alone.
Bodies such as the Ministry of Health, the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul, the Fleury diagnostic analysis laboratory, Renner stores, the CVC travel company and the iFood platform are examples of companies that suffered at the hands of hackers. The good news is that, with the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), file storage and handling of personal or corporate information has become more rigorous.
Recognizing attacks is the first step to combating them. Computer slowdowns, home page changes, installation of applications and extensions without your permission, excessive advertisements, pop-ups, floating windows and deactivation of maintenance and antivirus programs can be signs that your computer has been invaded.
To protect your customers and your company from cyber attacks, check out seven tips:
- protection software: antivirus, anti-malware and anti-ransomware were meticulously developed for combat, becoming mandatory programs in any company. The more layers of protection, the more difficult it is for the attack to reach you, since each program has its function, expanding the protection.
- Updated systems, software and applications: it is not enough to install the programs, it is more than necessary to keep them updated. This practice should be done to correct flaws and security breaches. Developers often look for these flaws and make the necessary fixes and updates to keep programs up and running and free of threats.
- network protection: a firewall is essential to protect and monitor connections, acting as a protection barrier to control the flow of data between gadgets and the internet. In this process, only authorized data traffic will be in circulation.
- corporative education: Failure-aware collaborators help close the door on threats. Many of the cyberattacks happen as a result of our flaws, weak passwords, such as birthdays and repeated numerical sequences, so hackers take the opportunity to capture data. A well-oriented team does not fall for the primary scams that exist out there, such as suspicious links and downloads of files containing threats.
- Cryptography: the secret of protection. Encryption is encoding data so that they are only accessible to those who have the password to decode them. This is because, no matter how much information is stolen, criminals will have the data in their hands, but they will not be able to access it, keeping the information safe.
- updated backup: having your data and that of your company in a second location where few people have access is an extra step to keep security up to date.
- Alerts: should be triggered when pre-established rules are circumvented, as a sign of cyber attacks. This helps identify suspicious IPs and users who tried to access your data, further optimizing the firewall.
Using security protocols is the best defense for keeping your company's and your customers' data safe. Saving money with this type of solution is simply not worth it, because fixing is more expensive than fixing the errors. More and more information is worth gold in the digital age, so let's live up to that value and take good care of them!
*Otto Pohlmann is CEO of Centric Solution, a technology company that provides end-to-end solutions to meet security and GDPR requirements, with a focus on implementation, training and support, in order to help sustain the development of businesses of all sizes and sectors
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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