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Dockwa CTO John Nagro recently joined the NMTA Boatyard & Marina Conference to talk shop about marina cybersecurity. Here's Part 1 of our cybersecurity blog series, starting with a quick list of resources that can help you mitigate cybersecurity threats ASAP.
Cybersecurity is a big issue for business owners, which means new great resources pop up all the time. So while there are lots of awesome resources out there, this isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of all of them – what follows are a few recommendations to point you in the right direction.
Email for Your Marina
Make sure you're using a business class email account. If you or any of your employees are using personal email addresses to conduct marina business, you are opening yourself up for an attack. Here are two common, reliable options:
Defend Your Marina Against Malware
Make sure the software on your office computers are up to date, and install anti-malware – head to Malwarebytes for that. a good anti-virus/anti-malware provider
Protect Your Marina's Data
Part of your business plan should include making regular, frequent backups of all your important files, so you can quickly recover from a fire, flood, or malware/ransomware attack. Using a good backup provider will help you maintain business continuity – we recommend BackBlaze Cloud Backup for this.
If your staff has to keep track of lots of passwords, make sure each password is unique for each login, and securely shared – we recommend 1Password for that.
Wherever possible, you can simply reduce the amount of customer data you keep. Dockwa securely keeps credit card numbers and personal information out of sight, encrypted, and backed up in the cloud so you can access immediately, from anywhere, regardless of attack.
Training Your Marina Employees for Cybersecurity
Finally, you need to build and foster a culture/mindset of data protection within your entire marina team – head to these training resources for to educate yourself and your staff on how to easily spot and avoid certain types of attacks.
Getting Started with Marina Cybersecurity
An overall key takeaway from this post should be this: ask your vendors for advice. This is what they're here for, and getting professional guidance will be a worthwhile investment in the long run. Dockwa provides advice to our marina partners on data protection all the time.
Your insurance agent or IT provider will also be a great resource. If you don't currently have an IT provider, your local business community is a great resource: ask your fellow business owners for local recommendations.
Another key takeaway: establishing and fostering good cybersecurity hygeine is cheaper and easier than you might think, and having a reliable, local company you can call if you encounter an issue will save you a lot of headaches.
