Should you Replace or Rekey Locks? — What Locksmith Richmond says

27 October 2018

Should you Replace or Rekey Locks?

Each home or business owner has different requirements for this question.

Have you moved? What types of locks are installed? How old are the locks? Have they meet the security level you want to be installed in your home or office. These are all questions you should ask yourself before making a decision about making a new key or change your locking account completely.

You usually want to rekey locks for your house or car because of burglary, theft or vandalism. You can also rekey your locks if you lose your keys if you feel that too many others have copies. Before you decide if you should re-key or replace your home or business locks, it’s important to know what the lock-re-key is doing once. This is one of the most basic locksmith tasks, but it can be complicated by higher security locks.

Lock the key again to lock the glasses so that each waffle takes place in a different order than before. This is done to keep the same lock and effectively change the keys. The cursor can use the new code lock on the glasses so that the old set of keys does not work with new glasses.

If your door locks are a security class (ANSI) Grade 1 or higher, you should be able to re-enter these unlocked locks.

If you can turn on the lock again, then you do not have to buy any additional hardware that makes it much costlier. Here are some other benefits.

Preserves the look of the door (no color lines)
Locks can be tensed with the same locks (convenience)
Cheaper!

If your locks are old and weak but fashionable, it can take a lot of time to completely replace the entire locking system. There are a couple of times that it is necessary to go over like:

1. If your lock is broken or other malicious haps:

If some locks’ assembly has spent so much that some locks or keys no longer catch, to ensure the safety it is time to take new locks.

2. Your locks are too old to find parts:

If you have an antique locker and the parts are no longer able to be replaced or re-keyed in the glasses, it is the time to upgrade your existing locks to the new ones. The new locks at this age have a much better level of security as the safety procedures have been upgraded over the years. It’s very difficult to find a locksmith that works with antique locks, and if you encode or repair a premium for a fee.

3. You require a higher level of security for your home or business:

If you have locks installed so that a low-security rating should be in your to-do list, add them at least ANSI 1 level. These locks are harder to choose, drill, or otherwise manipulate. We recommend good lock known companies like Schlage and Kwikset, but there are many good locks on the market. Compare the performance charts of Consumer Reports when you are on the market. You can also ask your local locksmith, as which they install is never a bad choice.

Now you know the benefit of rekeying vs. changing your locks and you made the decision to rekey them, then there are three options.

Hire a local locksmith Richmond (if you are in Richmond) to come to your home again for rekeying to your locks.
Remove the locks from the door frame by calling the local locksmith shop or local locksmith and reset them for you.
DIY – There are many re-key kits, that can be purchased, provide basic guidelines to rekey the locks.

If your locks fall into the category of lock change, there are about the same options, but then you have to first choose then opt new types of locks that you want to install.

You can hire a handyman or a local locksmith to complete a professional lock change. It is often suggested to hire a professional that you will find from Vancouver, BC locksmith or other trusted source with a review like a swear to have hassle-free lock changing procedure.
You can buy a lock-set online and make out the lock nodes yourself.

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Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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4 Ways To Address Privacy Concerns Around Customer Data

A single data breach can expose tens of millions of customers to spam, scams, identity theft, fraud, and more. It’s also a quick, easy way to destroy your brand reputation and lose a massive chunk of your customer base. In the worst-case scenario, you could end up paying millions of dollars in fines. If serious enough, your team members or executives could even face some jail time. But customer data still needs to be kept safe and private, even when the risks are far less grand in scale. Simply leaking your customers’ email addresses and exposing them to junk mail can erode their trust in you. To protect your customers and assuage any customer concerns, always handle their data with care. Here are a few important ways to protect data, limit the risks, and put your customers at ease. 1. Use Zero Party Data Perhaps the best way to put customers at ease about their data is to give them more control over what you know. Letting them decide what they share with you — and don’t — can protect their privacy and boost your brand reputation. Giving customers a chance to consent or opt out of sharing first-party data when they visit your site or app is a nice touch. But if you really want to put your customers in the data driver's seat, zero party data is the way to go. With zero-party data, your customers and prospects respond to surveys, polls, questionnaires, and more. These inputs can be used to personalize their experience, or anonymized and aggregated to help your brand make data-driven decisions. Either way, when customers provide this data, they usually expect some kind of user benefit. A personalized product recommendation, useful content, or a customized landing page are all ways to deliver that small reward. 2. Be Transparent Ideally, you should tell all of your customers exactly what you collect, what you use it for, and why. As long as you’re not up to anything nefarious (you aren’t, right?) transparency should be as simple as a brief pop-up disclaimer. In fact, transparency could help improve your credibility and customer trust in your brand. And that trust can in turn have a direct impact on your business growth and performance. It’s particularly important not to collect any extra bits of customer data you don’t need and they haven’t agreed to share. Gathering and storing extraneous data heightens the risk to your customers if there’s a breach. In some countries, regions, or industries, it could even be illegal. Besides all this, it can take up unnecessary room on servers, cloud storage, etc. To be on the safe side, always get permission from customers before collecting any kind of data. 3. Anonymize and Encrypt Some of the worst data breaches on record have also turned out to be some of the most ridiculous. Companies have accidentally leaked massive spreadsheets with customer names, addresses, passwords, and credit card data all linked together. But even anonymizing data doesn’t necessarily give customers any real protection or privacy. It’s all too easy to put two-and-two together and figure out someone’s identity. To ensure that data is truly safe, your company should always use the latest encryption methods and data protection protocols. Consult with experts about the best practices, software programs, and other tools to suit your company’s needs. Data security is not the place to cut corners, so be willing to dedicate a significant portion of your budget to protecting customers. Otherwise, you risk putting them in danger of identity theft, financial loss, reputational damage, and more. 4. Train Employees and Vet Vendors Customer data should be kept strictly confidential and only shared with employees and vendors on a need-to-know basis. Your employees need to understand how crucial it is to protect sensitive data and how exactly they need to do it. Before handling potentially sensitive data, employees should undergo appropriate screenings and training. Train them not to share details like passwords or door codes, and limit access to sensitive cabinets, rooms, or computers. Third-party vendors and contractors can be a potential cause of concern for data privacy. That’s why it’s important to carefully vet them, just as you would employees. The more you share data, the higher the risk of a breach or exposure along the way. If a vendor has access to your data, and its systems are compromised, your data could be leaked. Or, bad actors at the company you shared with could use the data in unsafe or inappropriate ways. Worst-Case Scenarios In the event that a data leak or cybersecurity event does occur, your company should have an emergency plan in place. Know what you’ll do in the event of a breach — how you’ll stop it from progressing and contain the damage. The plan should clearly indicate roles and responsibilities and include considerations for various scenarios. Many companies, universities, and government agencies have their plans publicly available online, as a resource. Whatever you do, never attempt to conceal a data breach from the media, your customers, or the public. You could end up facing fines, lawsuits, sanctions, jail time, and irrevocably brand-damaging press. Instead, own up to the breach immediately and let your customers know how you plan to handle it. In order to earn back their trust, you’ll have to prove you know how to do the right thing. Read Also: Data Security In The Cloud: Strategies For A Safe Migration Process Mining and Data Privacy – Key Points to Remember 5 Ways To Prevent Cyber Attacks

Common IT Security Risks in the Workplace

When it comes to your business, it is important to recognize some of the highest security risks that are present. Your security needs to be a top priority. To run your business, you will collect a lot of information about customers and even other businesses you work with. If a data breach happens, you could end up with a huge loss in reputation and other issues. There are a number of big IT security risks that can show up in the workplace. Recognizing these and finding ways to prevent them can keep that data safe. Some of the common IT security risks that can happen in the workplace include: 1. Insider Threats According to one study, about 57% of the recorded data breaches were not done by outside attackers. Instead, these were done by a threat that is inside the organization. And often this is not because someone is being malicious within the company. Negligent employees who click on the wrong link or give off information carelessly were often the cause. One of the top causes of a data breach still remains human error. Companies need to maintain focus on the inside as much as the outside to ensure data stays safe. However, it is sometimes hard to detect an insider threat. In addition to watching for these insider threats, a company needs to invest in the right training for its employees. Since most of this issue comes from negligence or carelessness, rather than malicious intent, things like security awareness training may help more than anything. 2. Social Engineering Another threat to watch out for is something known as social engineering. It can affect companies as much as it will affect individuals. Humans are susceptible to manipulation, which is why many attackers will use a variety of psychological tricks to get what they want. With social engineering, the right protection software or looking for different indicators of compromise will not be enough. It is hard to really predict human behavior all the time. All it takes is for one person to click one lucrative offer that is too good to be true, and your company has to deal with a data breach. What makes it even worse is that malicious attackers can easily find new ways to trick individuals to give up private data or granting access to critical areas. There are many different types of social engineering attacks that can be used including: Spear phishing Whaling Baiting Pretexting Tailgating Scareware Vishing Since this issue can exploit the basics of human behavior, it is sometimes hard to find the best way to combat it. Even tech-savvy users have fallen victim in the past from some of these. Educating your employees about these attacks and updating your training procedures is one of the best ways to help. 3. Ransomware Another thing to be careful about is ransomware. This can be a scary type of tactic that will make even the best in IT have to do a lot of work to prevent and fix it. Basically, this is when a hacker is able to get ahold of private or sensitive information and they demand a ransom to get the information returned. Sometimes the hacker just has the information, other times they will choose to freeze up a whole system and make it impossible to use. Even when. You agree to pay the ransom, there is little chance that the data will be returned and that the hacker will leave you alone in the future. Ransomware is simply a type of malware that can infect a network or a computer. It then encrypts the files or finds another way to deny others access to them before demanding some kind of ransom in the process. Usually, the malware will not delete the files. They will be present on the network, but without the decryption key, no one can access them. There are a lot of threats that come with this kind of attack, such as the permanent deletion of the files. But whether you pay or not, the hacker is already on the system and is the one in control the whole time. There are a few things you can do to prevent this security threat. First, teach your employees about how it works and how to not open suspicious files or attachments in their emails. This can help keep the chance of ransomware off the computer. Backing up your data and keeping records off the main part is a good idea too. This will allow you to start over with the information you need, without having to play the games, and most often lose, with the hacker. 4. Consider a Cybersecurity Audit If you are worried about some of the security risks that show up in the workplace, it may be a good idea to do a full audit of your system. A cybersecurity audit allows a professional to take a look at your network and the way it is used to determine whether there are any weaknesses that could increase your risk of an attack. Getting this audit done is one of the best ways to see where your security is right now. When it is done you should have a complete report about what is working and what is not when it comes to your network. Expect there to be things wrong with the audit. This is just a chance to fix them. When the audit is done, take some time to go through all the different recommendations and suggestions and find ways to improve your network security. Even small steps in the right direction make it less likely someone will get onto the system who should not be there. 5. Keeping Your Network Safe There are a number of IT security risks that you need to be careful about when it comes to the workplace. Planning ahead, recognizing some of these issues, and completing a cybersecurity audit can help you get the right level of security you need. Read Also: Everything You Need To Know About PKI In Cybersecurity How To Make Sure You Get The Best Service From Your IT Supplier A Few Things You Should Know Before Finalizing Managed It Services

What Is Zero Trust In Cybersecurity Context?

Since the concern about cybersecurity has developed worldwide, organizations have promptly started to transition their cybersecurity strategies to mitigate any risk threatening cloud-based resources, sensitive data, and a remote working environment. One of the systems developed to protect paramount assets is Zero Trust Security. What is Zero Trust? Most cyberattacks happen at network perimeters. So, the traditional network security systems deploy security solutions that work on the network perimeter. Yet not all threats are external, modern enterprises need an additional layer of security that blocks suspicious actions from inside the network. At this point, Zero Trust is superior to any other legacy products. Although Zero Trust definition can be various, Zero Trust refers to a framework comprised of technological implementations, efficient security strategies, and practices. With this structure, a boundary has been created around vulnerable assets, and sensitive resources are prevented from disclosure while the application entrance is restricted. The Zero Trust Architecture requires both in and outside users to authenticate to access the sensitive resources. This technology uses robust authentication methods, preventing lateral migration, and putting the ‘never trust’ policy into action. To eliminate the ‘’always trust’’ principle, you can implement these steps. How does Zero Trust work fundamentally? By breaking an entire business network into smaller segments, Zero Trust offers to enhance your monitoring environment and intensify the security of the user validation process. Each endpoint, user, or device must be authenticated and validated. Separating the whole workforce, the organization’s capability for data loss prevention becomes advanced. Here Are Three Stages Of Establishing A Zero Trust Framework: 1-) Analyze and visualize your resources To enhance your cybersecurity and prevent cyberattacks, you must consider determining your priorities and analyzing sensitive data resources and assets. With this, you can recognize where your resources have been kept and who has the authorization to reach them. 2-) Detect and mitigate threats Malicious activities can be eliminated by monitoring user activity, creating trust-based borderlines, and predefining user roles. Also, halting intrusions into the most valuable assets and avoiding doubt or unauthorized movements from users and devices can be favorable. 3-) Optimize protection Zero Trust Security combats cyber threats using tools 2FA, biometrics, and SSO. It is easy to integrate, scalable, and modular. Regardless of location and time, you can optimize your IT infrastructure and upgrade your user experience. What Are the Benefits of Zero Trust in Terms of Cybersecurity? As cloud-dependent, hybrid cloud, and fully digital businesses are becoming universal, enterprises’ financials, reputation, and maintenance have predominantly lied on IT systems. Companies’ all core chunks now rely on technology, and here are examples that Zero Trust protection yielded in terms of companies’ assets: 1-) Increase Your Data Protection It is vital to control data transmission to avoid any breach that threatens your sensitive customer data or intellectual property. Zero Trust helps you to mend your data security shortcomings. Also, it improves your data protection capabilities. 2-) Enhance Your Remote Workforce Security According to Statista, most remote employees consider their work devices as personal devices since remote work has become common. While using work computers or mobile phones for personal reasons climbed up among employees, companies started to be concerned about data breaches. Zero Trust decides whether to permit users onto the network or not. Each user has been given limited access to resources. For example, change in a job description, an employee can be locked out of the resources that he used to have authority to access. So, the abuse of privileges has been prevented by using this technology. 3-) Widen Your Protection Against Brand New Threats Zero Trust uses Micro-segmentation, location ID, and behavioral trust score to enhance your security and your capability to get protected against internal and external threats. It detects the request’s location and time for tracing the breaches before they happen. 4-) Automation and Simplify IT Management With Zero Trust Architecture, enterprises can imply measurements and no need for human resources for Cybersecurity implementations. The Zero Trust also offers automation that covers manual cybersecurity skill blackness. Conclusion Zero Trust Security offers a brand-new framework for data security, cyber threats, and intrusions. Due to the evolving workplace environment and concern for the secure, Zero Trust, with its ease of integrating your business, comes as a holistic technology. Phase out the VPN solutions to a widened protection technology for each enterprise in terms of the changing dynamics of today’s business requirements. Soon, almost all organizations will adapt themselves to Zero Trust security and must urge you to implement Zero Trust Security in your business. Read Also: Common IT Security Risks in the WorkplaceEverything You Need To Know About PKI In CybersecurityWould Your Ecommerce Website Pass the Cybersecurity Test? Here are 3 Things You Could be Doing Wrong

Should you Replace or Rekey Locks? — What Locksmith Richmond says