WINTER 2021

48 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

48 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK Joe Dysart Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Thousand Oaks, California. A journalist for 20 years, his articles have appeared in more than 40 publications, including The New York Times and The Financial Times of London. During the past decade, his work has focused exclusively on ecommerce. Telephone: 631-256-6602; web: www.joedysart.com; email: joe@dysartnewsfeatures.com SECURING YOUR COMPUTER NETWORK: KEY MOVES FASTENER DISTRIBUTORS SHOULD MAKE FOR 2021 Always a pressing challenge, the security of your fastener distributorship’s computer network is facing an even greater threat in 2021 given the stubborn persistence of the Coronavirus, according to security pros. Ever creative, hackers are riffing on Coronavirus fears by sending employees officiallooking emails pretending to feature new business policies on the Coronavirus. Also showing up in inboxes are new Coronavirus announcements from government agencies and the latest updates on free government financial support during the epidemic. Unfortunately, all those hacker emails turn-out to be malicious. And they often result in the penetration of your computer network by hackers, the installation of malware on your computers – and worse. Meanwhile, fastener distributors are also facing increasing break-ins on cloud accounts in 2021, more personalized ransomware attacks that use employee or manager credentials to penetrate your network. In addition, there’s also the age-old problem of employee insistence on using passwords that are ridiculously easy to guess. The upshot: Fastener distributors need to get current on The expected to surge in new computer network security threats in 2021 – and then make the necessary moves to ensure they’re protected. HACKERS ARE RIFFING ON CORONAVIRUS FEARS WITH NEW TRICKS HACKERS ARE SENDING MALICIOUS EMAILS PRETENDING TO BE COMMUNICATIONS ABOUT NEW CORONAVIRUS BUSINESS POLICIES. Says Kasey Panetta, senior content marketing manager, Gartner, a consulting firm specializing in tech (www. gartner.com) “Focus on business requirements. And understand how users and groups access data and applications. “Now that a few months have passed since the initial remote push (due to the Coronavirus), it’s time for a needs assessment and review of what has changed to determine if access levels are correct and whether any security measures are actually impeding work.” Towards that end, here are the key moves fastener distributors need to make to ensure their computer networks are protected from the coming storm: ¤ Secure Your Remote Workforce: With so many more employees working from home these days, an IT department needs to take special care to safeguard network connections between work and home. CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLE CONTINUED ON PAGE 126

THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK 49