Russian cyber-attack threat: How to protect your business

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a sharp rise in cyber-attacks.

And while many of the attacks are between these two countries, there is very real potential for other countries to fall victim to cyber-attacks by Russia, thanks to the sanctions placed upon it.

Over in the US, President Joe Biden declared the government had been improving national cyber security defences for some time now.

They’re focusing on the infrastructure to make sure that water, electricity and oil pipeline services aren’t at increased risk of attack.

Some very sensible cyber security advice has also been issued. There are a series of actions that businesses should be taking immediately to protect themselves against cyber-attacks, and other data security risks.

To start with look at implementing multi-factor authentication. This is where you generate a login code on another device, to prove it’s really you logging in.

Data backups should also be checked on a regular basis. Ideally there should be a copy of data that cannot be changed during a cyber-attack.

All data should also be encrypted, meaning it would have no value and be unusable if anyone did manage to access it.

It’s also a good idea to have an emergency plan ready to go that will help mitigate any attack quickly and effectively.

Businesses are also being advised to give their staff training to help them spot and avoid the common tactics used by cyber criminals.

These include phishing attacks where they send an email pretending to be someone else. And spoof login web pages, where they hope you will enter real login details in error.

If you have an IT support partner already, speak with them to make sure all of your systems are fully up-to-date and patched as necessary.

They can also help you to audit how well you’re performing with the items above, and get a plan in place to help you respond to an attack or attempted attack.

If you don’t have an IT support partner – or you feel your current one isn’t able to help you with your data security, we can help. Call us.