Three security basics worth checking this October

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and I’ll be honest, that phrase can make people’s shoulders go up. It doesn’t have to. Most of what keeps an office safe is plain, steady stuff. Here are the three things I’d check first, and none of them need a computer science degree.

Lots of offices have a backup. Fewer have ever tried to restore from it. A backup you’ve never tested is a bit like a spare tire you’ve never looked at. Probably fine, but you want to know before you’re on the side of the road.

Hurricane season runs through November 30 here, and we all know a building can have a bad day. A copy kept somewhere else means your files don’t have to.

Email is the front door to most businesses. It’s where password resets go, and it’s where the invoices and client messages live. So it’s worth a good lock.

The good lock is a second step when you log in. You type your password, then you confirm it’s really you, usually with a code or a tap on your phone. It takes a few extra seconds. The reason it helps is simple: if somebody ever gets hold of a password, the password alone isn’t enough to get in.

Nobody gets excited about updates. That “restart later” button gets a lot of clicks. But updates are how the known problems get fixed, and the longer a computer goes without them, the more of those problems it’s carrying around.

Take a look at whether your computers and programs are getting updated regularly, and whether anyone is keeping an eye on it. If the answer is “I think so,” that’s worth a quick look.