It’s time for a cyber spring clean

Recent data breaches show how important personal information is. This Cyber Security Awareness Month, take the time to check if your cyber security practices need a spring clean with some simple steps.

1. Update your devices and applications.

Regular updates are critical to maintaining secure systems. Cyber criminals hack devices by using known weaknesses in systems or apps.

Check your devices for updates and turn on automatic updatesExternal Link to apply future updates straight away when charging and connected to Wi-Fi.

2. Turn on multi-factor authentication.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a security measure that requires at least 2 proofs of identity to grant access, such as a physical token, random PIN or fingerprint.

Turning on MFAExternal Link will boost your protection against criminals. While they might steal one proof of identity, such as your password, they will be locked out of your account without the other.

3. Back up your files.

Backing up your data saves copies of your files to an external storage device, or an online server like the cloud. Setting up automatic backupsExternal Link means you can recover your important information if something goes wrong.

Once you’ve followed these tips you might like to check out the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s Small Business Cyber Security GuideExternal Link which gives more advice to help smaller organisations build their cyber security resilience.

Remember, registered tax agents can help you with tax advice.