Tag: Data Security

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Are the Apps on Your Device Safe?

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It’s difficult to judge whether or not an app can expose your business to risk without first downloading it. Despite their best efforts, Google Play and the iTunes store can’t possibly identify every single malicious application out there. Unfortunately, you’re charged with taking the security of your mobile devices into your own hands, but thanks to Google Play Protect, this responsibility is a bit more mild.

Google Play Protect is a new way to help users protect themselves from dangerous smartphone applications. It’s not necessarily an app on your device, but is instead a feature of the Google Play store itself. It’s found on Google Play Services v.11 or higher. Essentially, Google Play Protect scans your apps in the background and looks for anything sketchy going on behind your back. It can also manually scan your device for threats, as well as improve the detection of harmful apps that haven’t been installed through the Google Play store.

One of the major downfalls of Google Play Protect is that it can’t immediately scan an app that you install. Instead, you have to scan the app before you open it for the first time. We recommend that you always approach any new application with caution long before you download it from the Google Play store.

Even with Google Play Protect handling some of the dirty work behind the scenes to keep your devices safe, there are still measures that you can take to augment its approach. Here are just a few of them.

  • Only download apps from trustworthy sources: You might run into links that allow you to download an app to your device. By default, your device won’t let you download apps from external sources, and this is for a good reason. There is a greater chance that your organization could run into a malicious app while outside of the Google Play store. To be safe, only trust those that you find in the store itself.
  • Be wary of app permissions before downloading: Depending on the app you’re downloading, you might find that apps will require permissions to specific information on your device. An easy giveaway that an app isn’t the most secure is when it’s asking for too many permissions than you’re comfortable with. A great example is a flashlight app–why would it need access to your calls or text messages?
  • Consider Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): If each of your employees has a smartphone, a tablet, and a laptop, that’s three devices per user that are accessing important data. Therefore, it makes sense that in order to minimize risk, you implement some type of BYOD strategy that blacklists apps, remotely wipes compromised devices, and enhances mobile security.

Does your business need a way to ensure mobile security? COMPANYNAME can hook you up with a great mobile device strategy that can help your organization minimize risk. To learn more, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

3 Ways Your Business Can Prioritize Data Security

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In the wake of the Equifax data breach, which placed the personal information of 143 million users at risk, the issue of data security is at the forefront of social consciousness. Your organization needs to go about its daily business as if it will experience a data breach at any given moment. This involves looking at the worst-case scenario, and planning for it so that you’re never caught unaware.

Here are three preventative measures that you can take to secure your business.

Use Strong Passwords and Two-Factor Authentication
Passwords are often the only thing standing between your online accounts and your personal data. Think about it; a string of maybe 8-to-10 characters is the only thing keeping your sensitive information secure. Doesn’t it make sense to make this password as complex and difficult to crack as possible? You would think so, but a surprising number of folks still use the word “password” as their password. You should be using both upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols, formed into a seemingly random string of characters. Doing so keeps hackers from guessing your password and accessing an account.

Secure Your Network with Unified Threat Management
Network security depends on both internal and external measures, which include network-attached security devices like a Unified Threat Management (UTM) tool. A UTM consists of an enterprise-level firewall, antivirus, spam blocker, and content filter, all to keep threats from taking root on your network in the first place. Furthermore, you’ll be able to react to issues that become prevalent before too much damage is done, which is a valuable opportunity in its own right.

Educate Your Users on Best Practices
Your employees access important information on a day-to-day basis, and they are often in contact with more threats than you’d like them to be. Something as simple as a spam message in the wrong inbox or a carefully disguised link could be all it takes to expose your business to dangerous situations. Take the time to teach your employees how to identify potentially dangerous scenarios, like phishing phone calls and sketchy emails or attachments. Often times, you’ll stop attacks from taking off simply by keeping your employees informed.

By using these three methods to secure your organization, you’ll be less likely to suffer from a data breach. To learn more about network security and other ways to keep yourself secure, subscribe to our blog, and call our IT professionals at PHONENUMBER.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

A Few Security Lessons Your Business Can Learn From Game of Thrones

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Security is a major concern for anything successful, and television programming is no different. Game of Thrones, the BBC’s epic production based on George R.R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire, has always been concerned with their security–and with the television series overtaking the book series, that concern has only grown as the production has brand new secrets to keep safe. As a result, the production has seen a steady increase in security.

Last season, scripts were handed out much more sparingly, and code words were assigned to characters and scenes. The network has also stopped the tradition of distributing advance copies of the program to members of the press, which is normally done so that reviews may be written.

With the action in the show finally overtaking the action in the books this season, the concern for the show’s security has leapt to new heights.

This year, two-factor authentication had to be set up on every cast member’s email account, where they would receive their copy of the script. According to Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays the role of Missandei on the show, these copies were not to be printed out. Even the notes that the cast members received during rehearsal were not to leave the set, and had to be turned in before the actors could leave.

This dedication to secrecy only makes sense. Game of Thrones is a bona fide cultural phenomenon, and more importantly has generated an astonishing amount of revenue. This is mainly because subscribers to HBO’s content repeatedly tune in every week to find out who is next on the chopping block–the show’s version of critical data. If that data was to get out ahead of schedule, subscribers would have less of an incentive to subscribe and would quickly transfer their focus (and capital) elsewhere.

Your business’ data needs to be secured for similar reasons–just substitute ‘subscribers’ for ‘clients’ in the situation above, and you see the importance of keeping your data secured.

Taking a page from Game of Thrones’ production can help you here. Two-factor authentication is a method of ensuring data security by requiring a secondary form of authentication to access an account, for example, a unique code sent to a mobile device. If the password were to somehow be guessed by some other party, they wouldn’t be able to access the account without the secondary code. There are many businesses that are already using this method, both as a means of compliance with various regulations and to reinforce their security.

So, tell us: are you looking forward to the rest of this season of Game of Thrones? Tell us in the comments, but please don’t spoil anything!