Last week’s Yahoo data breach announcement was pretty unnerving. After all, 500 million accounts were hacked. It was the largest hack of all time.

This week, we spoke to several business leaders who were very discouraged about the incident. The majority of business leaders believe that it’s becoming harder and harder to fight cybercrime.

The hackers, unfortunately, appear to be winning.

Here’s a different way of looking at it, though, from cybersecurity analyst Dr. Chase Cunningham.

“It’s very much like viral biology,” Dr. Cunningham told TechZone360 today. “Almost everyone is a carrier of a virus of some sort, whether or not they are affected by it. All of us have organisms in our bodies which are doing things they aren’t supposed to be doing. Likewise, just about every organization that touches the Internet is going to have some kind of infection in it.”

Now, here’s the good news: According to Dr. Cunningham, you don’t need to wild trying to protect your network. By taking simple security precautions, you can greatly improve your chances of avoiding a data breach.

“You can’t stop all of the attacks that come your way,” Dr. Cunningham explained. “You just have to protect yourself more than the company next to you.”

All you need are simple technologies like biometric security solutions and password managers.

“It’s not difficult to make yourself a harder target than someone else,” stated Dr. Cunningham. “If you are using a password manager and two-factor authentication, for instance, you’re going to have longer passwords and varied passwords for different accounts – as well as a second factor for authentication when someone tries to access a corporate resource. If you take these steps you can basically nullify the vast majority of threats.” 

One easy way to make sure your bases are covered is to work with a managed services provider (MSP). An MSP will provide comprehensive cybersecurity protection and ongoing maintenance – enabling you to focus on growing your business without having to worry.

A new breed of hacktrepeneurs has awoken and they have little to fear and everything to gain by infecting as many companies as possible and extorting money from them. Apex Technology Services stands ready to protect your company regardless of whether it’s located in New York City; White Plains, New York; Connecticut; Australia; Europe; or anywhere else. Our full suite of cybersecurity and IT support services is at your disposal, enabling you to spend less time worrying about and more time growing your business.

In addition, our new Cybersecurity Compliance Certification for law firms will help keep your legal practice from becoming the next Panama Papers victim. This baseline cybersecurity audit for the legal industry should be considered seriously by all law firms.