Cyber threats are a very common threat to businesses, irrespective of their nature being small or big in the digital world. Business has further proved that hackers are always on the lookout to exploit vulnerability. Damage which may be caused by this cyber attack is often profound because businesses can lose crucial information, money, and even trust. Learn how you can secure your business from these cyber threats. This blog will take you through the process that you need to complete to make sure that your business is well protected against cyber threats.
-
General Knowledge About Common Cyber Threats
Protect your business by knowing the different types of cyber threats. For this, some of the common threats are explained below:
-
Phishing attacks: In phishing attacks, cyber hackers will send an email or message claiming that they have sent the message from a trusted person. Most times, they wish to collect critical information like a password, credit card number, or even personal information.
-
Malware: This is malicious software that may wreck your computer systems or steal data. Virus, worms, and spyware come in the malware category.
-
Ransomware: The ransomware is malicious software that encrypts your files and provides access for a given amount of money. It holds the business out critical files.
-
Data Breaches: Hackers try to attack the network with the aim of stealing some confidential customer data or financial data.
-
DDoS Attacks: DDoS creates traffic flood that crushes your servers hence the servers are not available to users.
-
Insider Threats: Employees and, at times, contractors misuse their access to company systems, sometimes unknowingly and sometimes with malicious intent at times.
-
Business Significance of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is not only data protection; it is protecting one's reputation, finance, and operations. A cyber attack can also mean that one may be able to experience:
-
Direct monetary loss: the money lost may directly arise from the hacking or pays to repair damage like recovering data.
-
Harm to the Company Reputation: The customers' data can be hacked in a very easy process, therefore harming the company's reputation and eventually causing loss in the business.
-
Operational Downtime: A cyber attack will cause your operations to stop, hence loss of productivity and revenue.
-
Legal Issues: You may find yourself in legal issues associated with failing to protect the customer data mainly with the current laws such as GDPR.
-
Preparing Cybersecurity Strategy
A business can only have a cybersecurity strategy at a given time. This will give you all the preparedness in terms of potential threats and guidance while providing your responses. These are the steps to design the strategy:
-
Assess Your Risks: You identify and determine what kind of data your organization is collecting and storing; also, determine how much it is critical to your business. Then, you note potential risks and threats to your systems.
-
Develop Policies: You should establish clear policies for cybersecurity for your employees. These include password management, data access, email, and installed software that need to be updated.
-
Train the Staff: Employees are indeed the weakest link in any cyber-scenario. Educate them on handling sensitive data not to fall prey to phishing attempts and have strong passwords.
-
Have an Incident Plan: The plan for handling the cyber-world should there be an incident. Know who is going to clear the situation and contact the customer with and retrieve lost data.
-
Use of Strong Passwords and Authentication
This is one of the easiest ways through which you can secure your business with passwords. Many attacks were enabled because the passwords had been weak. Here is what you do:
-
Use Strong Passwords: Advise that complex passwords should be set and a worker should have letters, numbers and symbols. Avoid words that may easily be guessed.
-
Change Passwords: Enforce on policies that require employees to change their passwords at one point in time to limit the likelihood of encountering the same vulnerability they previously encountered as relating to their safety
-
Two-factor Authentication: This will give an extra layer of security through the use of two-factor authentications. The employee shall authenticate by the use of a password then authenticate by a text or even an application example.
-
Software Update
This is most probably due to hacking of hackers of some old software used to gain access to your systems. Manufacturers of the software release patches with a view of fixing this flaw in their products. Unless you regularly update your systems, your business is at very great risk. Here is how you should go about this:
-
Regular Upgrades of Software: All the operating systems, applications, and all security tools must be on the latest version of patches.
-
Allow Automatic Updates: Your software ought to have automatic updates enabled; this will ensure you don't miss out on some crucial security patches.
-
Get Legit Security Software: Update your antivirus and anti-malware software as well since this will save you from the consequences of damage malware can cause.
-
Secure Your Network
Your business network probably is the first place an attacker will come for. Secure it, and you are reducing your chances of a hacker breaking into your systems.
-
Use firewalls: Firewalls will prevent unauthorized access. Such devices work on the principle of sitting between your internal network and the outside world, blocking all unwanted information coming from the outside.
-
Encryption of Data: This is the best option if you are encrypting sensitive data whereby even after gaining access by some hacker he will still not be able to read it without the key of encryption.
-
Use VPNs: If your employees or other people need to gain access to your network from remote locations, ensure that they use a virtual private network (VPN) in order to protect both connectivity as well as data.
-
Auto Data Backup
The best cover that companies have against cyber attacks relates to data or information lost because of cyber attack. According to Vinnell, "backup becomes useful if a business loses or loses its data because in such a case, information can be recovered from the lost or stolen data." Plan for Both On-site and Cloud Backups of Critical Business Data Maintain Periodic Backups.
-
Test Your Backups: You must test your backups to know if they are working correctly or not. In this way, you can be sure that you will retrieve your data in case they need to be retrieved.
-
Keep Backups Safe: Store your backups at a safe place. Make use of encrypted storage solutions, if possible.
-
Educate Your Employees
Any business would have its weakest point in defense against cyber attacks, which is its employees. It could be as simple as one careless mistake or just one click of that phishing email to bring very severe breaches into your business. That involves employee training as a critical process.
-
Regular Cybersecurity Training: Educate your staff on their own cyber security. Inform them on all new threats and what they should look for from email phishing scams or suspicious activities.
-
Lay Down a Reporting Culture: Ask the employees to report any security incidents or mistakes without fear of repercussions.
-
Access Sensitive Data: Should only be available to employees who intend to use the information for their official work activities, hence limiting the possibility of inappropriate information leaking into wrong pockets.
-
Monitoring and Detection
Continuous scanning of the system will alert the detecting system concerning recognition of outliers and will respond before actual damage is done.
-
Installation of Security Monitoring Tools: You have to install security tools that monitor and detect any strange happenings inside the network or systems.
-
Regular Review of Log: Where logs from the servers and security software reports portraying signs of dubious activities
-
Reaction to Alarms: Once you can detect the threat, go about reacting fast. Analyze the matter and put across your response strategy
-
Installation of Data Protection Laws
Among other things, the fact that most countries require companies to protect customers' data is important. One usually faces heavy fines and other legal implications for failing to comply with such directives.
-
Be Familiar with the Regulation: Be aware of what is expected by your country's data protection regulation, for instance, within the European Union, it is the GDPR while within the US it is the CCPA.
-
Implement Appropriate Security Controls: You should be in a position to ensure that you have implemented appropriate security controls that are designed to safeguard personal and confidential data.
-
Notify the Involved Agencies in Case of Data Loss: In case of loss of business data, you are entitled to notify some concerned agencies together with affected customers within some given period.
-
Cyber Experts
There will be instances when you have to identify those people to protect your company. Based on their sharp analysis, you come to understand your risks, and you place measures on your business that keep it safe.
-
Hire An MSSP: An MSSP will monitor your systems, but at the same time, he will bring to your lime light certain information concerning security problems and rapid responses to threats.
-
If your business handles, or is likely to handle sensitive information, then you will look for a cybersecurity expert to assess the risks and then suggest ways that strengthen your defense.
Conclusion
It's these which should be protected as they will be able to threaten your business through some hacking cyber attacks. This is because the hacker progressively becomes more sophisticated through new forms of threats and security practices that will defeat your business from hacking. You can avoid cyber attacks pretty easily with some pretty robust cybersecurity measures that include employing use of pretty robust passwords.