7 Days to a More Secure Business and Personal Life

Security is about more than million-dollar firewalls; often, it’s about the small, daily habits that keep small issues from escalating into major problems. Today, the lines between personal and professional lives are blurrier than ever, and a compromised personal device could also mean access to an entire corporate network.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to get your security in order, and we’ll prove it with this seven-day digital hygiene sprint. Surely you can spare a week to get your security in order, right?

Here’s the roadmap:

Day 1: The Personal Perimeter Sweep

Most business executives use their personal devices for work email. If your personal Apple or Google account is compromised, your work data could also be at risk. Take steps to introduce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your personal primary email and social media accounts. Use an authenticator app rather than SMS codes for greater security.

Day 2: The Ghost Permission Audit

How many contractors, former employees, and one-time partners have access to your business? Take time to get permissions under control. Open your primary shared drive (OneDrive, Dropbox, SharePoint, etc) and review “Shared Folders” or “External Access.” Revoke access for anyone who isn’t currently working on a project.

Day 3: The Password Spring Cleaning

Stop using the same password for all of your accounts; it just makes you more vulnerable to credential stuffing attacks. Identify your ten most sensitive accounts, then change those passwords to unique passphrases. Store these passphrases in a secure password management tool. Then, repeat this process until you’ve gone through all of your online accounts.

Day 4: The Home Office Hardware Check

Your home Wi-Fi could be one of your weakest links. If you’re still using the default passwords and network names, you need to change them now. Log into your home router settings, then update the firmware and change the Wi-Fi password. Make sure your guest network is also enabled for non-work devices.

Day 5: The Shadow IT Discovery

Quick fixes can escalate into shadow IT if they aren’t addressed properly. Since these tools lack enterprise-grade encryption, you want to take action to limit the use of such solutions. List out every third-party app that you’ve used in the past 30 days, then ask if the task could be completed with a company-owned and approved tool instead. If not, you can ask your IT department to look into the solution and see if it’s an appropriate option.

Day 6: The Emergency Contact Update

When a breach occurs in the middle of the night, do you know who you can call to address it? Confusion is how hackers get you, and you want to mitigate it as much as possible. Save your IT provider’s emergency support number in your phone and make sure everyone on your leadership team knows who is responsible for what in the event of a breach.

Day 7: The Digital Legacy Review

What happens to your data and access if your device is lost or stolen? Take some time to ensure remote wipe is enabled for all of your mobile devices through a mobile device management tool. Finish out the week by verifying that Find My Device settings are active.

Just like that, you’re in a better place than you were before; and it didn’t even take that much time or effort on your part.

If you’re ready to get started, reach out to Managed IT Force. We’re happy to walk you through any and all steps necessary to protect your business. Learn more by calling us at 724-473-3950.