Best Cyber Hygiene Practices through Behavioural Change

By Priya E. Abraham

One of the biggest advantages of working remotely is the unprecedented amount of freedom. You can work from almost anywhere that you are able to take a laptop or digital device. The world is truly your workplace. But with this freedom comes greater responsibility for the cybersecurity of your business and the privacy of your customers.

In the post-digital age, with more than 1 billion data breaches in 2018, we’ve seen that the technology-only cybersecurity solution provider has clearly failed.
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So then how can remote workers ensure that their business is protected at all times against data breaches and guard the privacy of their customers?  And how can team leaders ensure that their remotely working team has the necessary capabilities for a secure workflow?

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Human Behaviour as the Weakest Link in Cybersecurity

At the end of the day, it’s not technology that can be blamed; it’s human behaviour. We are the weakest link in this game. The upside to this is that as an individual, there are data and privacy strategies that include daily actions and behaviour entirely within your control. These will allow you to reclaim your cyberstrength and boost your cyberpower while ensuring your customers and team that they can trust you with their data and information.  
Here are a few of these behaviours you can easily implement for your business: 

• Use strong and unique passwords in addition to a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Although you shouldn’t use public WiFi if at all possible, remote working sometimes makes this impossible. A VPN can increase the safety of your public surfing by allowing you to surf the web anonymously and securely from anywhere, keeping your customer’s data private and ensuring it is safe from cybercriminals and hackers.
• Think twice before posting anything on social media as it can be used for social engineering and data breaches. If you want to use social media that have better privacy agreements than Facebook, like Twitter or Reddit, consider having accounts that are anonymous and private and don’t provide personal information about yourself.
• Provide internet service providers (ISPs) with the minimum information possible. The only way to ensure that they don’t leak your data is if they don’t have it. In addition, you can take extra steps to stop your ISP from tracking you: use HTTPS, using VPNs that don’t log your online access, adjust your DNS and use an anonymous browser such as TOR or Brave. ​

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Best Cyber Hygiene Practice for Staying Safe while Going Remote

​For remote workers and solopreneurs, digital safety and security on-the-go is of utmost importance. Here are a few tips for ensuring safety whenever you are on-the-go: 

• Ensure the security of your digital tools - With conducting your work remote and on-the-go, it is important to pay attention to the digital tools you use to get your tasks done. Unfortunately, more often than not, the most popular tools that people gravitate towards may not be the safest choice. For more tips on this, visit our guide to making wise decisions when assembling your digital workspace. 
• Create regular backups – If you want to be prepared in the midst of an attack, you’ll need to have ready all of the latest work you did for clients. If you regularly backup your work, you’ll never be in a situation where you have to pay ransom to a hacker or an exorbitant fee to an expert to de-encrypt your data. Either use a cloud service or an external disc to save these backups.
• Use `Find My Device.’ This is an Apple feature that can locate your device if it is lost, misplaced or stolen. Windows and Android have similar features as well. This only works while your device is online, however. If it’s offline you can still put it in lost mode, lock it or erase it remotely. ​

Reclaim Your Cyberstrength Through Behavioural Change

Combining tech solutions with adjustments in human behaviour are the most effective ways to safeguard your business. Ultimately, the data and privacy strategies you choose as the head of cybersecurity of your business are your choice and your sole responsibility. Develop the cyber self-awareness you need to become resilient to attacks or data breaches, and you’ll have greater trust from your customers that their data is safe wherever you are in the world and no matter what the circumstance.
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To support these choices and the required behavioural change, our Cyberpower Academy invites you to accept the free Cyberpower Challenge! Three days, three cyber behavioural changes, all for less than a 20-minute time commitment per day. 

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