Introduction

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a global initiative dedicated to raising awareness about cybersecurity threats and promoting best practices to protect our digital lives. This year’s theme, “Secure Our World,” emphasizes the collective responsibility of individuals, organizations, and governments to enhance online security.

What is Cybersecurity Hygiene?

Cyber hygiene refers to the set of practices that users and organizations take to maintain the health of their digital environments. Creating a structured environment minimizes risks and reduces constant IT intervention.

Here in Dev Team, we ensure that systems remain secure and free from malware, unauthorized access and vulnerabilities. We create a structured environment that minimizes risks and reduces constant IT intervention.

Just as good personal hygiene is essential for physical health, cyber hygiene is crucial for safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining cybersecurity.

Why is it Important?

Without proper cybersecurity hygiene, you become an easy target. Cyber threats are continuously evolving, becoming more advanced and widespread. Hackers are constantly finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in software, hardware, and human actions.

These factors demonstrate why staying vigilant is key:

• Legal Compliance: Regulations and laws requires you to safeguard data. Failing to do so can lead to significant legal consequences, including fines and lawsuits.
• Cost Reduction: Cyberattacks and data breaches are expensive. The financial impact can be substantial, including costs related to data recovery, legal disputes, and lost business opportunities. Implementing proper cyber hygiene reduces these risk-associated costs, making it a smart investment in digital security.
• Prevention of Cyber Attacks: Cyber hygiene serves as the frontline defense against cyber threats. By adopting appropriate security practices, you can greatly minimize the risk of data breaches, malware infections, and other malicious activities.
• Reputation Preservation: For businesses, a cyber breach can be devastating. It will severely harm your reputation and credibility. Maintaining good cyber hygiene helps protect your integrity and ensures that customers and clients can trust you with their sensitive information.

“I really think that if we change our own approach and think about what we have available to us, that is what will unlock our ability to truly excel in security. It’s a perspective exercise. What would it look like if abundance were the reality and not resource constraint?”

Greg York

Key Cyber Hygiene Practices

Establishing and maintaining effective cyber hygiene practices requires building routines that are easy for an organization.

Here are some Cybersecurity Hygiene practice from Dev Team:

• Regular Software Updates: We ensure all software, applications, and devices are consistently updated to guard against vulnerabilities.
• Strong Passwords: Employees are encouraged to create unique passwords that are updated every six months to prevent easy guessing. We also utilize 1Password as a secure password manager to generate and store employee passwords safely.
• Multi-Factor Authentication: To enhance security, we implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) on our applications. Security codes are sent via email, SMS, or Google Authenticator, and devices like laptops require a second factor, such as a fingerprint, for access.
• Regular Backups: Automated backups provide a reliable safety net, allowing developers to focus on innovation without the risk of data loss.
• Avoiding Suspicious Content: We educate employees to be cautious of links and attachments from unknown sources. Google also assists by flagging phishing, spam, and malware attempts through email alerts.
• Account Monitoring: With evolving cyber threats, we closely monitor account activity to detect potential attacks. Regular monitoring helps secure client information and reduces the risk of unauthorized access by identifying unusual behavior early.

“As cybersecurity leaders, we have to create our message of influence because security is a culture, and you need the business to take place and be part of that security culture.”

Britney Hommertzheim

Applications we use:

• Apple Business Manager​
• Jamf Now 
• CrowdStrike Falcon Antivirus
• 1Password Manager
• GoodAccess VPN

Apple Business Manager offers centralized management of our organization’s devices, applications, and accounts, streamlining end-user access and permission management.

Jamf Now is a mobile device management (MDM) platform that helps us securely manage our Mac devices, keeping them configured correctly and updated with the latest patches and OS updates.

CrowdStrike Falcon Antivirus delivers real-time threat detection for malware, viruses, breaches, and other cyber threats, with a streamlined monitoring tool for easy management.

1Password generates unique, strong passwords for each account, without the need to remember them individually, and provides industry-leading security across all your devices.

GoodAccess VPN protects against malware, ransomware, and phishing, supporting enhanced security and privacy for remote teams, small businesses, and individual users.

We want everyone (customers, partners, employees, and contractors) to feel confident that their data is secure. The only way to gain trust is by actively safeguarding our systems and databases.

Key Takeaways

Remember, cybersecurity is an ongoing process, and it’s essential to stay vigilant and adapt to the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Cyberattacks can have far-reaching consequences, affecting individuals, businesses, and critical infrastructure. From data breaches to ransomware attacks, the potential risks are significant.

Since October Cybersecurity Awareness Month, consider adopting one new habit to boost your cyber hygiene. Small steps can make a big impact in keeping your digital space secure.