Protecting Yourself and Your Practice from Cyber Threats

Despite the growing threat of cyber hacking, many businesses and individuals have failed to make the changes necessary to protect their privacy, data and livelihood with next level cybersecurity.

Perhaps the best way to protect yourself and your business from cyber threats begins with the simple exercise of fortifying the access protocols around the sites and software you use.

Passwords are the Weakest Link

The current model of user names and passwords requires that passwords be both complex and unique to be effective. However, the sheer number of accounts and sites accessed today by individuals often results in passwords that are memorable (i.e., simple) and redundant, leaving information and privacy susceptible to criminal hackers.

Fortunately, with every technological problem, a technological solution is bound to emerge.

Technology Comes to the Rescue

A password management system stores all your passwords, protects them with advanced encryption technology and allows for easy login to the sites and platforms you use.

When outsourcing password credentials, it’s essential to establish two-factor authentication, a method of controlling access by which a user must present a form of identification (e.g., PIN number) in addition to a password.

Because you are “putting all your eggs in one basket,” this basket needs to be highly secure. Though two-factor authentication is not impenetrable, the degree of effort required to break a two-factor system is exceedingly more difficult than stealing a password.

Risks Introduced
Adopting a password management system will introduce two primary risks:

1. Forgetting your password
2. Losing your smartphone and, thus, your second authentication factor

To mitigate the risk of forgetting your password on your password management account, write it down and keep a copy at work, home and on your person. While normally it’s not best practice to write down a password, remember it is useless without the second authentication factor.

The second risk, losing your smartphone, can be addressed by disabling the two-factor authentication option via a time-sensitive, e-mailed link, and re-establishing it once you have recovered your phone or purchased a new one.

Time to Evolve

As the landscape changes around us, we must respond or face the potentially expensive consequences of our failure to adapt.  To learn more about how to enhance your password security, read our white paper,

See referenced disclosure (2) at https://blog-dev.americanportfolios.com/disclosures/