Lessons Learned: Two Crucial Security Tips For SMBs

Paul Mah explains how two recent security snafus demonstrate why it's not a good idea to use the same password in multiple sites and why it's crucial to keep up to date with software patches.

"Comparatively lower budgets for security gear and the lack of dedicated personnel to keep an eye out for the latest exploits mean that SMBs need to do what they can to avoid being snared in the web of "gatherers" – script kiddies who make use of hacking tools or malware written by others. In the same vein, a couple of security incidents hit the news recently that I felt perfectly exemplified the importance of a couple of security practices we've talked about in the past.

Using the same passwords for different sites Corporations and entities have long spent large amounts of engineering resources and money working towards a utopian vision of single sign-on access to everything on the corporate network. The great irony, however, is that it has become increasingly evident that using the same password is an invitation for danger in our hyper-networked world. This point was just demonstrated last weekend when Gawker Media woke up to find that its empire of online sites – built using proprietary code – had been compromised."