Cybersecurity Awareness Month Series: Secure IT

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Series: Secure IT

Date: October 8, 2019
Tags: , , , , , ,

By Steven Luczynski, Chief Information Security Officer, T-Rex Solutions.

The second post in our series in support of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, #BeCyberSmart, we are focusing on the next campaign theme: Secure IT.

SECURE IT

Another cyber hygiene practice we emphasize to our employees is the need to update their devices in a timely manner. While we allow for some delay, in certain circumstances, to avoid interrupting business operations to the max extent practical, installing patches for software, operating system, applications, etc as soon as possible ensures those devices have the best protections available.

The best and easiest method to complete these actions is a simple reboot of their device. This could be the last line of defense for keeping our protected information secure in the unfortunate scenario where an employee inadvertently clicks on a malicious link or attachment. Even so, we strive to remove that burden from our employees by leveraging the technical capabilities of our security products and automation to lessen our employees’ susceptibility to phishing attempts.

Personal devices, often used for work purposes in our BYOD environment, typically allow for the same automated patches and updates, along with filtering spam and other potentially malicious emails. The ability to install updates automatically is just as valuable on personal devices. This cyber hygiene practice easily transfers from work to home, where the importance of this habit continues to increase with the proliferation of Internet-of-Things devices and smart home technologies.

For more information on these topics, check out:

https://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/securing-key-accounts-devices/mobile-devices/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/national-cyber-security-alliance_becybersmart-mimecast-cybersecurity-activity-6585867534485069824-5nFy

Auto-updating your devices and apps:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202180

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/113412?hl=en

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12373/windows-update-faq

Other articles in our series:
Intro to Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Secure IT with Passwords
Cybersecurity Awareness Month Series: Protect IT
Cybersecurity Awareness Series Finale


recently posted
More than Modernization: Digital Transformation Empowered by Agile Learning Culture

More than Modernization: Digital Transformation Empowered by Agile Learning Culture

Today’s avalanche of technology-driven change has made digital transformation imperative for Federal and civilian enterprises. At the heart of this transformation lies Agile Development, a methodology offering dynamic software development and delivery, which has emerged as the gold-standard for tech […]

Zero Trust Lift: Network Visibility and Analytics Maturity using Zeek

Zero Trust Lift: Network Visibility and Analytics Maturity using Zeek

Zeek is a proven open-source network visibility and analytics tool that you can leverage to increase your agency’s Network Visibility and Analytics Capability maturity under CISA’s Zero Trust Maturity Model Version 2. Zeek (https://zeek.org, formerly named Bro) is a network […]

T-Rex is Hiring at Hill Air Force Base

T-Rex is Hiring at Hill Air Force Base

Since 2016, T-Rex has been supporting large scale hybrid-cloud migrations and systems modernization, to include the successful deployment of the first-ever online U.S. Census in 2020. We are excited about expanding our IT Modernization services within the National Security market, […]

Secure by Design and Zero Trust: Integrating Supply Chain Risk Management with DevSecOps

Secure by Design and Zero Trust: Integrating Supply Chain Risk Management with DevSecOps

Agencies are seeking innovative ways to mature their Zero Trust posture. In this article, we have focused on improvements to your DevSecOps to increase maturity in two pillars: 1) Devices and Applications and 2) Workloads.