An introduction to cybersecurity for small business

Tim Gentle - Small Business Victoria Workshop Leader

[Vision:  Tim Gentle walking past shopfronts]

Well G’day. It’s Tim Gentle, and we’re talking cybersecurity. So we’re going to start from the very top. Passwords. So, when you’re setting a password it’s important to have 8 to 10 characters. Now make sure those characters are lowercase and uppercase. Now I always try and have numerals as well, and if you can get special characters in there perfect. Now just say you have the word tree, well replace the e with a number 3.

Okay. What about devices our iPhones, our Android devices? It’s so important to put a lock on those. Now you can use your fingerprint, a password, or you can even use a pin code.

Okay. So, have you heard of Malware?  It stands for malicious software. So why do people want to do malicious damage to your computer? Well, first of all they want your personal ID. It’s known as personal ID theft. They come on, they get your date of birth, a few photos, and a little bit of information about you.

Another thing they do is they do what’s called a Cybersquat. They actually sit on your computer and watch your keystrokes. So next time you’re logging in to your internet banking, bingo, they’ve grabbed that number.

Now malicious software can also be used for cyber attacks. So they sit on your computer, they get about 20,000 computers together, and then they automatically all target a website. Well anyway, malicious software, malware aside, you can do things to avoid it.

Now quite simply, if you get an email with a really suspicious attachment don’t open it.  If you go to a website and the web address doesn’t look correct, or the wording just doesn’t seem to add up, then don’t use it. And, if you want to protect your computer, my biggest suggestion is to install some antivirus or malware protection.

All right. So you have an iPhone, you have an Android phone or a Windows phone, and you need to know whether or not you’re susceptible to an attack.  Well let’s start from the top. If you’ve got a Windows machine then you have a medium chance of being attacked by malware or viruses. If you have an Android device you actually have a high risk of being attacked by malware.  If you have an iPhone or say an iPad, then your chances of being hacked are a little bit lower. And if you’ve got a Mac computer then you have a risk of being attacked.

So let’s just wrap it all up. So the three big points I want you to take home is this. Install malware or virus protection. Make sure your password has 8 to 10 characters, is using uppercase and lowercase, numerals and special characters. And finally, ask questions.  If you feel like something’s suspicious then don’t open it, seek some professional help.

So that’s cybersecurity. And you’ll learn more about being safe online at some of the other Small Business Victoria workshops. So check it out. I’m one of the workshop leaders.  My name is Tim Gentle, and thanks for joining me. I’ll catch you soon.

[Victoria State Government - Authorised by the Victoria Government, Treasury Place, Melbourne - Spoken by Tim Gentle]