Economic espionage – also known as industrial espionage, corporate espionage and corporate spying – justifiably resides as the top concern of security professionals and persists across companies of all sizes. Whether a company’s knowledge assets or data on its personnel, the odds have long been that someone seeks proprietary information. Today, however, the information is more accessible, exists in various locations and available to devices via the internet. What has changed is the migration of access to data as it no longer occurs for everyone from a computer terminal in an office. Data now resides in the cloud and may possibly be distributed across a myriad of electronic devices. Moreover, the adoption of mobile computing combined with the explosion of electronic devices has forged a Bring Your Own Device (BYOB) work model that has essentially extended the enterprise’s security perimeter to each employee’s phone providing assailants a greater surface to attack with an easier entrée given the vulnerabilities with smartphones. These devices that have more computing power than what powered a business 40 years ago have but a fraction of the protections. The abilities to access corporate systems, intercept intercompany correspondence, eavesdrop on sensitive conversations, track employees and store precious data now reside on smartphones and reside in nearly every employee’s hand with the first and often only guard of protection to something an enterprise values.

As the internet uses #PasswordDay to celebrate and patronize the 1961 Massachusetts Institute of Technology creation of the password, we at Privoro are working on our goal of ending the use of passwords within our organization.

Over the last couple of years I’ve become much more security- and privacy-focused. Why?

This is the third installment of a three-part series on cybersecurity advice. In part 1, I covered general awareness and protection of personal devices. In part 2, I covered ways to protect yourself in online interactions. In this third and final post, I will focus on ways to practice good digital hygiene such as backing up data, managing passwords, keeping data clean and managing your social media information.

This is the second portion of a three-part series on Cybersecurity advice. In Part 1, I covered general awareness and protection of personal devices. In this post, I will focus on online interactions and provide advice to help ensure you are safe, secure and private in the online world.