Four quick tips to protect yourself from cyberattack!

ASD provides some basic tips that will safe your digital life and business from getting hacked.

New Delhi: Many organisations from around the world have become the victim of security breaches with hackers emerging more of a threat than ever before.

While cyber attacks are on the rise, there's possibility that it could be a result of certain mistakes that organisations commonly make leaving millions of dollars and data at risk.

Recently, a survey by PwC revealed that about 86% of organisations from around the world had faced exploits of some aspect of their systems within a one year period, representing an increase of 38% on the previous year.

The Australia Signals Directorate (ASD) – one of our government intelligence agencies – provides some basic tips that will safe your digital life and business from getting hacked.

It also estimates that adhering Four quick tips to protect yourself from cyberattack!to its Top Four Mitigation Strategies would prevent at least 85% of targeted cyberattacks, says a report from IFLScience.com.

Managed risk: Cyber security cannot be cured, but there are wise treatments that can make risk manageable. It is important that organisations, particularly the risk management functions, need a thorough understanding of the constantly evolving risks as well as the practical tools and techniques available to address them.

ASD also estimates that the vast majority of attacks are not very sophisticated and can be prevented by simple strategies.

Patching: This is one of the most important things from amongst 'to-do' list in order to prevent a cyber attack.

You should always update your software, system and phone because updating will help in fixing known vulnerabilities. Also, it is advisable to avoid using Windows XP, as Microsoft does not longer provide security updates.

Restricting access: This means you're simply restricting vulnerabilities. Make sure that your password is super strong. Avoid mixing your official work data with your home businesses or try having separate computers for work and home to avoid giving administrative privileges to your default account.

Whitelisting: This is a powerful and effective tool to protect a network. Whitelisting limits use with a 'deny by default' approach so that only approved files or applications can be installed.

With a huge increase in the volume of viruses and other forms of intrusion, it isn't easy anymore for traditional antivirus products to keep virus up to date. Hence, whitelisting is much more secure as it allows only pre-approved applications.