Baby, it's cold outside

Brodie Krause,
IT Manager

It was a bit late to show, but winter has finally reared its head here in East Central Illinois. Each morning brings a heavy coating of frost, the wind has a bite to it, and soon enough, we’ll have plenty of snow to deal with. When I go out during this time of year to battle the cold, there’s only one thing that makes it bearable, having multiple layers of protection. The wind has less of an impact when it has to go through a variety of warm layers of clothing.

The same is true for your data systems. It seems you can’t go a week without hearing about another security breach or hack attack in the news. We’ve all read about them, and unfortunately, the odds are we’ve all been impacted by them at some point. The best thing we can do to prevent these attacks from having a major impact is to protect our systems with multiple layers of protection. Gone are the days when having antivirus software alone is sufficient.

For 2016, I strongly urge you to do a top-to-bottom review of the security of your data systems:

• Computers and servers should have a combination of antivirus, antimalware and firewall software.  
• Networks should have locked down firewalls and routers.  
• Email systems should have spam protection and you should have some method of monitoring for spoofed emails.

Nothing can stop the winter wind from howling, just like nothing can stop gifted but misguided coders from attacking data systems. The only thing you can control is how big of an impact these attacks have on you. So cover up and have a great year.

This article originally appeared in Modern Memorialization, Trigard Memorials' weekly electronic newsletter featuring information for the funeral industry. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.trigard.com/thursdays.