Cyber Security Update
Cyber Attacks on Australian IT Infrastructure
The Australian Government late last week released a statement detailing the Cyber Attacks currently taking place against the IT Infrastructure of Australian Government Departments, the Healthcare Industry, Educational Institutions as well as business in general. As a business owner, you should be aware of the facts, and the remedies available to you to ensure your business is protected from potential threats.
These attacks have been described as sophisticated, looking for any intellectual property or data that could potentially be of use to these cyber-attackers in the future. The Australian Cyber Security Centre has released the Essential Eight Strategies to help Australian Businesses minimise their cyber risks.
Coupled with the Essential Eight Strategies, ShowellTech remains on the front foot to ensure our customers’ networks are protected in line with IT Best Practice.
For our managed services customers, the majority of these services have already been undertaken. However, for some businesses it may be time for a review of your cyber security and where your IT infrastructure stands so as to protect your business and intellectual property.
ShowellTech can assist with the following to ensure your business complies with current security standards. While the list may seem overwhelming, you can call us to help you decipher the information relevant to your business.
Application Control
This security control ensures only allowed software is permitted to run on workstations. Any application that attempts to run without approval will be disallowed. This ensures that potentially malicious software isn’t given the chance to run and possibly infiltrate your network.
Patch Operating Systems
This simple process involves running built-in Windows or MacOS updates to the latest version of your operating system. This ensures any potential security threat in older versions is patched before it becomes a vulnerability. Talk to us about how a Managed Services Agreement could benefit your business.
Microsoft Office Macro Settings
Disabling Microsoft Office Macros from automatically running can be a great line of defence against an Office document sent as an email that may contain potentially malicious software. Talk to us about how we can ensure this setting is configured correctly on your network.
User application hardening
ShowellTech can review your applications and ensure any unwanted or unnecessary applications are uninstalled from your systems to ensure any vulnerabilities are minimised.
Restrict administrative privileges
You should never use an administrative account for day-to-day use as they are automatically allowed to install software bringing in potentially malicious software. ShowellTech can assess your current User Account structure and ensure permissions for User Accounts are set for appropriate day-to-day use.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
This is probably one of the most important lines of defence to prevent your online accounts from being compromised. Our general rule of thumb is that if a service offers MFA, then you should definitely be using it; not just for things like internet banking, but also for email accounts, cloud storage accounts, social media accounts and especially for remote working staff that use services such as VPN and Remote Desktop. Talk to our team today about how we can help you utilise MFA in your business environment.
Patch Third-Party Applications
Similar to Operating Systems, by updating third party applications such as Google Chrome, Adobe Reader or Microsoft Office means you have the latest version of this software which will ensure your version is free of any potential threats. Talk to us about how a Managed Services Agreement could benefit you.
Daily Backups
Backups are critical to ensuring your business critical data is always backed up. ShowellTech provides cloud-based comprehensive backup solutions that can run from as frequently as every 15 minutes to cloud-based servers stored in Australia (which complies with regulatory requirements for industries such as Healthcare). We can also provide backup solutions for cloud services such as Office365 and G-Suite. Talk to our team about the best backup solutions available for your business.
Anti-Virus and Physical Firewalls
This is our own addition to the Essential Eight Strategies but we cannot stress enough how important it is to have a commercial grade Anti-Virus solution installed on all of your computers and servers. For businesses with more than 5 workstations we also recommend a physical firewall on your network that scans all network traffic for threats before it even makes it to your network. Talk to our team about Anti-Virus and Firewall solutions for your business.
Our Managed Services Agreement
At ShowellTech, we love seeing our customers’ businesses thrive, but the cyber security of your infrastructure is crucial to continued successful business. Talk to our team today about an assessment of your current security posture and find out how our Managed Services Agreement can best protect your business from any potential threats.
Jacob Kelly
Senior Technician at ShowellTech
