Global cybersecurity company, Kaspersky has recommended seven key points that will help organisations and individual stay protected in 2021, even as it disclosed that in 2020, an average of 360,000 new malicious files was detected by per day – an increase of 5.2 percent when compared to 2019.
This increase was influenced mostly by a large growth in the number of Trojans (malicious files capable of a range of actions, including deleting data and spying and backdoors (a specific type of Trojan that gives attackers remote control over the infected device.
The seven recommendations are:
- Pay close attention to and don’t open any suspicious files or attachments received from unknown sources. Double-check the URL format and company name spelling before you download anything. Fake websites may look just like the real thing, but there will be anomalies to help you spot the difference.
- Do not download and install applications from untrusted sources.
- Do not click on any links received from unknown sources and suspicious online advertisements.
- Create strong and unique passwords, including a mix of lower-case and upper-case letters, numbers and punctuation, and activate two-factor authentication.
- Always install updates. Some of them may contain critical security issues fixes.
- Ignore messages asking to disable security systems for office software or antivirus software.
- Use a robust security solution appropriate to your system type and devices, such as Kaspersky Internet Security or Kaspersky Security Cloud. It will tell you which sites shouldn’t be open and will protect you from malware.