Recent cyber attacks have shown how important it is to have robust cyber security practices in place to protect both your business and customers information.
After the series of cyber-attacks recently, it’s critical to safeguard your business and customer information from cyber incidents.
You hold the keys to your customers’ lives on your devices and are responsible for keeping that information safe from cybercriminals.
We’re encouraging you to put ‘cyber safety’ at the top of your priority list for 2023. Implementing the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) Essential 8 mitigation strategies is a great place to start.
The Essential 8 strategies are:
Strategy 1 – Application Control
Put simply, application control involves you putting together a list of computer apps and/or downloadable programs that are ‘authorised’ as being legitimate and safe to use. You then add these authorised apps to your computer’s application control feature. These features act as your computer’s security guard, ensuring that you can only download and use the approved list of apps can be on your computer.
Doing this can minimise the risk of malicious code (also known as malware) being downloaded onto your systems, which can then disrupt, damage, or even gain unauthorised access to your computer systems.
It’s important that you regularly review the list of approved apps and remove any you no longer need. It’s also crucial that you test the application control to make sure it works. Simply try and download an app that isn’t on your authorised list and make sure your system blocks the download.
Visit the ACSC website to find out more about implementing this strategy.
Source: Australian Taxation Office Tax Professionals Newsletter
