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How often do we hear about a business that’s suffered a security breach or data leak?
It seems as though a major company or industry suffers from hackers every other week. The Colonial Pipeline hack in May sent people scrambling for gas out of fear of a shortage. T-Mobile suffered a hack that exposed the personal data of millions of people.
Colleges have the personal information of thousands of current and former students on their campus networks. This makes them prime targets for cyber attacks. Students and their parents want the assurance that their personal information will be safe.
Here are ten ways to ensure the security of your school’s campus area network.
- Back Up Your Data
No security system is perfect. Hackers and their methods are ever-evolving, and businesses have to reconcile that there’s always a chance they could be hacked. One of the best things to do to take the sting out of a data breach is to back up all your data.
Invest in the services of an online backup service. Even if data is lost or stolen, these services keep a copy to help mitigate the frustration of a breach.
- Install Firewalls and Monitor Their Performance
Firewalls are software or hardware that block unauthorized access to computers and networks. They control incoming and outgoing network traffic through a series of protocols. Computers that follow these protocols are granted access to the network, while those that do not are restricted.
Firewalls are not infallible, so you’ll want to monitor your firewall’s performance to ensure that it is operating normally. Without a firewall, hackers have free reign over your wireless infrastructure.
SevOne can also help monitor your wifi, routing, and switching to help your IT team ensure everything is running as it should.
- Keep Software Up-To-Date
As annoying as you may find them, software updates help programs and systems run as smoothly as possible. They also provide the latest security patches to protect them from hackers.
It’s imperative to keep these updated. You can turn on automatic updates so that your programs will update whenever an update is released.
Web browsers like Chrome and Firefox receive frequent updates, so it’s a good idea to use these browsers as an added security measure.
- Don’t Use Default Passwords
Even if your default password seems secure, a unique password that you create is better. Unique passwords for all of your password-protected accounts will make it that much harder for hackers to get ahold of your data.
If you have many different accounts that require passwords, it can become tedious trying to remember all those unique passwords. Password managers can help alleviate that stress by keeping track of those passwords for you.
- Update Passwords Every Few Months
Strong, unique passwords are an excellent way to help maintain your data’s security. You can help ensure your network’s security by avoiding using characters that have similar shapes to letters in your passwords. Hackers are familiar with this trick.
Changing your password on a semi-regular basis can help further mitigate security breaches. Once every three to four months should suffice. Password managers are helpful when you undertake this security measure.
- Avoid Phishing Scams
Phishing scams are ploys that are intended to get unsuspecting people to divulge security information. They can come in the form of emails or phone calls. The perpetrator will try to coerce precious information from their intended victim through many different scenarios.
Phishing scams will generally try to emulate the format of a company’s official phone or email signature. They then try to solicit information from a company’s employees. A company will seldom ask its employees to divulge personal information through a phone call or email.
- Use a VPN
VPN stands for virtual private network and is an added layer of security when you’re on the internet. VPNs provide a secure connection between their users and the internet.
It accomplishes this by routing network traffic through an encrypted virtual tunnel. This disguises the IP address and makes it invisible to everyone else.
VPNs can also protect their search history from their internet service provider. Instead of your searches being associated with your own IP address, they are associated with the VPN’s IP address. To an outside viewer, your searches can appear to generate from multiple places in the world from different IP addresses.
- Use Advanced Endpoint Detection
Advanced Endpoint Detection uses AI to detect security breaches and react accordingly. The technology collects and monitors information about network devices and identifies security incidents, policy violations, fraudulent activity, and other threats.
To provide a quicker response to these threats, a lot of automation is used.
This method of security is more advanced than anti-virus software. This method of protection provides a real-time response to ever-changing attacks on wireless infrastructure.
- Use Two-Factor Authentication
No security protocol is infallible, which means that your data will always be vulnerable. Security measures help make the prospect of vulnerability almost infinitesimal. This is where two-factor authentication can help bolster your wireless infrastructure even further.
This process works by sending a verification code, usually through text message, to a phone number. Users must input the code before attempting to log in. Without your phone, hackers will be unable to gain access to your accounts.
- Watch What You Click
Do not visit unknown websites or downloading software from untrusted sources. Browsers with security measures like Chrome or Firefox will alert users if they try to access untrusted sites or software.
These sites and programs, upon accessing them, will install malware silently. This will compromise your computer and your network while you remain unaware until too late.
Protect Your Campus Networks
Security breaches are a regular occurrence, and it could be your business that’s next on a hacker’s list. Plenty of security protocols can help strengthen campus networks as well as safe network practices by its users.
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