Cyber Security 2020 at Lone Star Communications was a challenging year. Cyber criminals did not exclude us in their daily attempts at trying to get us to compromise our data and in some cases, our customer’s data. We experienced a series of attempts that included, phishing emails, ransomware, fake text messages, and targeted attacks. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to adjust our cyber security processes, for remote offices, as well. Our commitment to addressing these concerns as a Team paid off for 2020. Our Quarterly Cyber Security Training Completions remain over 97%. Our Defendify Phish Testing score results were awesome. We experienced no Cyber Security incidents that caused a loss of personal or company information.
AWESOME WORK EVERYONE! Also, I would like to extend a huge thanks to our awesome IT Team, Dan Martinez, Craig Cordes, Hashem Tahajjod, Mumin Adeyemi, Jon Pennington, Brian Manibo, Jason Marshall and Kevin Henderson (he will never admit it, but he is a tremendous help).
Cyber Security 2021 will surely be another challenging year with evolving methods by cyber criminals. Now that working from home has become common place, homes have since been flipped into offices for the foreseeable future. More employees are using devices to access confidential data on home and corporate networks, which poses a considerable risk to our organization. Without secured access and robust security tools that protect the distributed attack surface, threat actors will easily hack into our networks and jump from one machine to another until they find a suitable target. Working from home is now a critical weapon in our fight against COVID-19. However, this also provides an opportunity for skilled cybercriminals. In 2021, we can expect cyber criminals to evolve their attack strategies and adapt to the “work-from-home economy,” pursuing remote workers even more so than in 2020. Unmanaged home machines will become targets, and in turn, these easily compromised machines at home will become the pivot point to home-bound corporate devices allowing advanced persistent attacks.
Our continued Quarterly Training and testing will remain one of our best methods to counter attacks and attempts. There are many business processes and practices that translate to our home offices and networks as well. For 2021, I plan to make myself available via MSTEAMS to answer any questions as to what additional processes can be added to your home network. Please feel free to schedule a discussion. No home or business network is identical. However, there are common security practices that should be in place. Here are some things to consider and possibly adjust for your home network. Again, please feel free meet or chat with me via MSTEAMS to discuss making your home network secure.
1. Change the name of your default home network
2. Make sure you set a strong and unique password to secure your wireless network
3. Increase your Wi-Fi security by activating network encryption
4. Turn off the wireless home network when you’re not at home
5. Use a strong network administrator password to increase Wi-Fi security
6. Change your default IP address on the Wireless router
7. Turn off the DHCP functionality on the router
8. Disable Remote Access
9. Always keep your router’s software up-to-date
10. A firewall can help secure your Wi-fi network
-Brian Banks, Internal Information Security Officer