Self assessment - Small business owner

The vast majority of cyber attacks against individuals and small businesses  are opportunistic. The attacker often doesn’t know the victim, but instead scans for open networks, tries default or common passwords, and so on. This kind of attacker will quickly move on to another target if you make things a little difficult for them.

So, no matter what you’re concerned about simple safeguards like the following add a lot of protection: 

Passwords
It’s hard to overemphasize how important passwords are in protecting you from cyber attack. Follow these rules and you’re more than halfway there:

1. Change the default passwords your cameras came with
2. Use strong passwords that are hard to guess – the best ones are randomly generated by a password manager app. Or, use an easy-to-remember, hard-to-crack passphrase like, “my cat’s name is lucy and i love her so”.
3. Keep your passwords safe – don’t share them with people and don’t write them down. Store them in a password manager app, instead. 
4. Change your passwords regularly if practical – the weaker the password, the more important it is to change it often. 

Suppliers
Choose a solution from a company that applies cyber security best practices – like AXIS Companion from Axis.

Internet exposure 
Don’t expose your cameras to remote access from the Internet: Your router protects your local network from remote access, so don’t tamper with it. 

If you do need remote access to your videos, use a secure service like AXIS Companion.

Other best practices
Update camera software: Updates often close vulnerabilities, so update when you’re prompted to update.

The vast majority of cyber attacks against individuals and small businesses  are opportunistic. The attacker often doesn’t know the victim, but instead scans for open networks, tries default or common passwords, and so on. This kind of attacker will quickly move on to another target if you make things a little difficult for them.

So, no matter what you’re concerned about simple safeguards like the following add a lot of protection: 

Passwords
It’s hard to overemphasize how important passwords are in protecting you from cyber attack. Follow these rules and you’re more than halfway there:

1. Change the default passwords your cameras came with
2. Use strong passwords that are hard to guess – the best ones are randomly generated by a password manager app
3. Keep your passwords safe – don’t share them with people and don’t write them down. Store them in a password manager app, instead. 
4. Change your passwords regularly if practical – the weaker the password, the more important it is to change it often. 

Suppliers
Choose a solution from a company that applies cyber security best practices – like AXIS Companion from Axis.

Internet exposure 
Don’t expose your cameras to remote access from the Internet: Your router protects your local network from remote access, so don’t tamper with it. 

If you do need remote access to your videos, use a secure service like AXIS Companion.

Other best practices
Update camera software: Updates often close vulnerabilities, so update when you’re prompted to update.