Cyber Liability insurance is now available to insure against data loss and corruption caused by viruses – which are not covered under any other existing insurances.

The recent Ashley Madison case saw the data of millions of users been hacked into and made public. While this will not have affected many people in Franklin – the threat to your cyber data is real! A December 2014 survey in the US showed that 61% of small businesses had reported being a victim of a cybercrime within the past 12 months.

Do you use a password which could be easily guessed? Does it centre around your name/family members names or birth dates? You need a password which cannot be easily guessed so a mix of numerals, upper and lower case letters and punctuation is recommended. Hackers can easily gain access to your personal information to discover passwords – putting all of your online and program data at risk. It is also important not to use the same password for all online activity.

Phishing is also rampant. This is where a legitimate looking email comes into your inbox with an attachment. When the attachment is opened it triggers the installation of malware installation on your computer. To prevent this you need to be vigilant about not opening files or clicking on links within an email unless you are 100% certain of where they have come from.

A small and seemingly innocent action within your online environment has the potential of taking down your entire system.