Is your favourite coffee shop the biggest danger it services perth it support perth cyber security perthI know you are really busy and don't have time for this right now. I know it seems like almost daily you're getting bombarded with things you must know or things you must do.

I too have felt the same way. Being a business owner or business manager, your responsibilities are endless and sometimes you feel like putting your head in the sand or quitting. You’re either busy with client work or trying to find good employees to help you get the client work done.

Coffee shops like to call themselves the third place, a place between home and work where you like to be. I’ll be the first to put my hand up and say I love a great cup of coffee at a great café, who doesn’t right?

Some people, even I, going back 10 plus years ago, like to conduct work from their favourite cafe using their free Wi-Fi. Naturally, this is a bad idea, as you or your employees may be exposing your entire firm, your reputation and your family’s livelihood to danger.

Now that I have matured and learnt what really goes on, I will only work from one or use their free Wi-Fi if I have first connected to a virtual private network that I control. The reason for this is public networks like those you find at café’s, coffee shops and hotels are playgrounds for hackers and cyber criminals.

Without the virtual private network, hackers can intercept your private and extremely sensitive information such as matters, files, online banking passwords.

In targeted or just plain “unlucky” cases, they will setup an “evil twin” of a legitimate café or hotel Wi-Fi and once you connect to it unwittingly, the hackers are able to make you download malicious software such as ransomware, without your knowledge or any action you took. In all cases you’ve just experienced a data breach whether you know it or not.

It doesn’t end there.

Working from home poses its own set of issues, causing gaping holes that could cause you to suffer a damage reputation or damage to your family’s livelihood.

In most cases, you and your employees are not running the same protections on home computers as you are in the office. Even if your employees or team members are careful, are you sure their kids aren’t online clicking on links from ads or other sources that let malicious software get onto their home computer? Are kids as likely to be diligent about not clicking on e-mail links or opening files as you or your employees might be?

While you may have locks on your doors and a security system on your house, once a child who lives there opens the front door, none of that security matters, and it’s the same online.

But it’s not ALL doom and gloom!

You can protect your firm, your employees and your family by having an IT company that makes sure you have the proper security, systems and monitoring on these networks.

With the right security in place, it can even be safe to work from your favourite ‘Third Place.’

But you can’t assume you’re protected. You need to ask your IT guy to show you documentation of how you are protected on public Wi-Fi, at home or anywhere.

Or you can get an independent third party to check your security and see how your current IT holds up.

Have questions about your reputation, family’s livelihood, your current IT systems, concerns or even getting a competitive bid? Let me invest into your continued and ongoing success and buy you 10 minutes of my time with an initial consult. Go to www.myinfotechpartner.com.au/initialconsult/ or give us a call on 08 6244 2556.

My Info Tech Partner is a trusted IT Services and IT Support provider in Perth that specialises in advanced cyber security services for legal, accounting and financial services firms and is the only one that offers a $10,000 “Never Pay the Ransom” Guarantee.