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We find many organisations are unsure of how many people have potentially got access to their data. Homeworking using VPNs doesn’t protect you against a user inadvertently bringing malware into your systems. BYOD, (Bring Your Own Device), opens you up to data theft, malware infiltration and GDPR breaches to name but a few of the risks.

Spam littering your inboxes could either be a sign that your Spam filters are not set correctly or that the right anti-spam policies have not been activated on your email tenant.

Anti-phishing policies on your email tenant will check incoming messages for indicators that a message might be a phishing attempt, but if your people don’t know what to look for, they could still fall victim to a scam.

Recycle bins are not the same as back up and have limited retention timeframes. Recycle bins are not built for data recovery.  This means that restore is difficult, especially if it concerns multiple files and folders.

Not being able to restore your data quickly could mean your business is unable to operate and meet your customers' needs. It also contravenes GDPR which states that organisations must demonstrate the ability "to restore the availability and access to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident."

Nowadays, most software applications are delivered via cloud technologies and the providers store and back up the data across multiple locations. If those locations are outside the EU, the destination country must have an adequacy decision in place or you are breaching GDPR.

Good password policies now blend Multi-Factor Authentication with Identity Protection functionality built into your email tenant. Did you know that The UK Cyber Security Centre’s password policy guidelines now state that passwords should not be changed unless there is suspicion of malicious activity?

Updates are essential to keep machines up-to-date, stable, and safe from malware and other threats. Patches are often created after a company has experienced a data breach to ensure other businesses' data remains safe and applying a patch as quickly as possible lessens the risk of your business becoming affected.

Surprisingly, many clients that come to Westlake IT do not have anti-malware installed across their whole estate. We often find that organisations have patchy protection caused by poorly documented PC configuration practices and lack of regular auditing.

While a VPN will protect your connection to the internet from being spied on and compromised, you can still get hacked when using a VPN if you bring the malware in yourself or allow someone to find out your username and password.