Page 76 - Cyber Defense eMagazine forJune 2021

makes recovery of unaltered files fast and easy - so there’s zero operations disruption and never any
need to pay ransom.”

JG Heithcock, GM of Retrospect, a StorCentric Company:

“A global survey conducted by Gartner found that 88% of business organizations mandated or
encouraged employees to work from home (WFH) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With millions
of workers around the world now having to access their organization’s data remotely, data protection was
put under increased pressure. For many, the answer was to employ a strong password -- oftentimes,
requesting that employees do so employing a random mix of no less than 15 characters. Undeniably, this
was a step that could not be ignored. Unfortunately, many learned the hard way that this was not enough
to stop today’s increasingly determined and aggressive cyber-criminals. And given that research, such
as that from the Harvard Business School, shows that the WFH paradigm will likely endure, it is clear that
stronger measures must also be taken.

The next step in the data protection and business continuity process for virtually any organization (or
personally, for that matter) is an effective backup strategy. And the good news is that there is no need to
reinvent the wheel here. A simple 3-2-1 backup strategy will do the trick. This means that data should be
saved in at least three locations -- one on the computer, one on easy-to-access local storage and another
on offsite storage. The options range from local disk, to removable media, to the cloud and even tape.
And, if at least one copy is “air-gapped” meaning completely unplugged from the network, all the better.

In 2021 and beyond, multi-layered data protection strategies - such as those employing strong passwords
combined with thorough backup practices - will help to ensure you, your data and your organization
remain protected in the event of a simple accident, cyber-attack or any other disaster.”

Wes Spencer, CISO, Perch Security, a ConnectWise Solution

“Here’s a riddle for you: what’s the one thing we all have, all hate and never remember? Yep, a password.
Isn’t it ironic that in 2021, we’re still using one of the most broken systems for authentication ever? Even
Julius Caesar hated passwords and preferred his own cipher to communicate instead.

Why is this? Well, passwords are like underwear. You see, you should never share them, never hang
them on your monitor, and honestly, no one should ever see them. So how do we go about living in a
password-required world? First, remember that long passwords are always better than complex ones.
This is because the human brain is hardwired to be extremely poor at creating and remembering complex
passwords. In fact, a long 16-digit password is far more secure than a short 8-character complex
password.

Second, never reuse a password. Ever. Most successful breaches occur when a stolen password from
one platform is leveraged against another system that shares the same password. At Perch Security,

Cyber Defense eMagazine – June 2021 Edition 76
Copyright © 2021, Cyber Defense Magazine. All rights reserved worldwide.