Every business nowadays depends a great deal on cyberspace. Whether your company has an online presence or not, a great deal of communication, management, and finance is handled via online platforms and services.
Cybercrime is rising and it is becoming necessary to think ahead on how we can keep our data and funds safe from virtual theft. Even though the field of cyber security is changing rapidly, there are some key actions you can take to prevent your business from suffering from cyber attacks.
Here are our best-resulting ways to keep your business safe from cyber-attacks.
#1 Train Your Staff
Investing in your staff training always has a good ROI. It is no different when it comes to cyber security.
There are many ways your employees can be a part of preventing cyber attacks. First of all, they mustn’t be a liability themselves.
For each employee, you can use a 2-step verification as a safety measure, but even then, each employee should know how to create a strong password, and how to store it safely (if you have a series of software you use, you might also invest in a safe password keeper), and how often should they change it.
Moreover, they should know when to use Virtual Private Networks (Cloud VPN) for accessing your internal online platforms, as well as how to spot malicious behavior online.
This includes, but it is not limited to, training about phishing, scam emails and social media contacts, suspicious links or files, etc.
#2 Keep Your Firewall Strong
A firewall is your first line of defense against cybercriminals. As the crime gets more sophisticated, your need for protection should turn towards the best possible firewall solutions.
A firewall makes your daily web-related activities safer by detecting and blocking malicious links, files, viruses, untrusted networks, worms, and other potential threats.
Having a strong firewall is precious when dealing with DDoS attacks, flooding or crashing. If you use cloud-based services, you will have a small advantage when it comes to protecting your business from these types of attacks in particular. For instance, if you run an eCommerce platform, consider using cloud ecommerce platforms to keep your online business away from different cyberattacks.
Firewall Management Plan
Your IT team, in charge of keeping you cyber-safe, should have a firewall management plan with certain rules and processes that will optimize this field of your security.
Best practices in firewall management include regular security audits, checking if the software is updated, checking firewall policy management, and so on.
Your IT team should do random checks of your firewall, from time to time, and create firewall security audits. By reading them, they can further check if everything is in order or if something has to be updated.
For example, audits can show you whether firewall rules are aligned and compliant with your internal policy and requirements. If you have been updating your policy in the meantime, audits can help your team understand whether the firewall must be updated as well.
#3 Perform Regular Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
Your business will grow and develop over time. You will involve more staff, create more products or services, and invest in new tools and structures.
But, as your business develops, your cyber security should progress as well. Regular risk assessments can help you understand your weak spots, analyze security status in detail, and create a response to make your systems safer.
Cybersecurity Framework
Implement a cybersecurity framework that includes processes and strategies to handle any risks that potentially occur. This would imply that you have a ready set of actions as a response to any cyber attacks, and a risk management team that is equipped to handle the task.
A common example of a cyber attack on a company is when a hacker steals an important or significant amount of data from a company, and then uses blackmail to force the company owner to pay (usually via cryptocurrency).
Risk management within your cybersecurity services framework would have a prepared set of actions as a response to this event.
#4 Keep All Software Up-to-date
We have mentioned this on multiple occasions throughout the text. However, there is still the need to emphasize just how important updating your software is.
Software is being updated for many reasons: to launch a new feature, remove unnecessary/outdated features, compress the size of internal files, and update UI/UX.
But one of the most important reasons why new versions of the software are being created is precisely to improve security for the users. As hackers are discovering new holes to squeeze through into your accounts, software developers are building a stronger defense to close these holes.
#5 Consider Investing In Cyber Insurance
Even if you do all the necessary steps to keep your company cyber secure, you might still become a target of a very talented hacker. Cyber insurance can help you recover from the damage if this becomes the case, and more SMEs are considering this option in 2022.
As your business grows, you will be more often a victim of network failures, hacks, and data breaches. This is what general cyber liability insurance for businesses will cover.
Whether the liability is coming from within the company or from an outside attacker, if you are working with any sensitive type of data (for example if you have an eCommerce business and you are collecting payment data from your customers), this insurance policy is a great parashot to have on you.
To Wrap Up
Cyber attacks happen virtually. However, often what it takes for a successful hack is access to your hardware. Your computers and equipment must be super protected at all times, with secure login information that is not accessible to anyone outside your company.
When training your employees, make sure to let them know how to keep the hardware they use for work safe (company laptops, smartphones, and other devices). Sometimes all it takes is for a hacker to break into an employee’s smartphone and read the necessary credentials.
We hope these tips can help you improve the security and safety of your data. And, as always, update, update, update!