There are a lot of huge risks businesses have to fend off in the current environment. While it may not get the most press currently with issues like inflation and the pandemic, the risk presented by hackers and other cybercriminals has not gone away. If you want to protect your business, you must protect your business data from those that want to do you harm.
Rely on Encryption Whenever Possible
Once your business’s data gets out into the internet, ever wrestling control back of it can be virtually impossible. However, what if that data was in a form that could not be used by hackers or cybercriminals?
This would be the case if that data were encrypted. Without the encryption key, your data can’t be read or used. Implement encryption at all levels of your company whenever possible.
Choose a Security as a Service Provider
Something you should be looking for as a business owner is a cyber security as a service provider. Also known as SECaaS, these are companies that implement cloud computing technology to provide online businesses with the security services they need to protect their data and digital well-being. This can all be done through the cloud without needing expensive hardware or tech staff on site.
Train Employees on Cyber Security
What may shock you is that employee incompetence is often the source of many business data leaks. According to Forbes, 74 percent of employees failed all questions in a cyber security quiz. Without cyber security literate employees, your company and its data are certainly in peril. A thorough training regimen is required to bridge this gap.
Limit Access to the Network
While training employees on cyber security is important, not every employee requires meaningful access to your computer systems. A cashier, for example, should only have access to a POS terminal. They should not be given access to the larger network.
Limiting the number of people who have access to the larger network is a good idea. This limits the possible sources of a data breach.
Utilize Two Factor Authentication
One thing you should be wary of is relying too much on passwords. Passwords can be cracked, and they can be leaked after a hack. When that happens, all kinds of malicious parties may gain access to your systems.
Two-factor authentication helps solve this problem. In most cases, the second factor is a code that is randomly generated and sent to your smartphone. It stops intrusions from password leaks entirely.
Stay Updated
Make sure all your software including your firewall and your anti-virus software is consistently updated. The threats presented by hackers, viruses, malware, and more are constantly evolving.
Not being updated means being stuck in the past. Even a few weeks could be the difference between getting hacked or not since a new exploit could have been discovered during that time.
Ditch BYOD
BYOD, Bring Your Device, was a business strategy from several years ago that told business owners they could cut costs by having employees bring their laptops, tablets, and other devices to work.
While this may be true from a hardware perspective, the cost of the extra risk you take on doing so outweighs those minor cost savings exponentially. You do not have control over everything on your employees’ computers and devices. Do not cede over that control.
Perform Routine Backups
You don’t only face the threat of your data leaking during a security breach as a business owner. You also face the risk of that data being wiped off the face of the earth as well. Even something as simple as a lighting strike can permanently erase or corrupt all the data stored in a company’s hardware.
This is why you should always make sure you have backups in place from third parties at separate locations. This data should be continually updated to help lessen the length of downtime you would face if you do have serious data problems.
Closing Thought
You must be prepared. If you are lax regarding cyber security, your data will be lost. What happens next could be extremely painful both to your company and your customers. After such data breaches, lawsuits are likely. Overall, it’s best to stop these kinds of cyber security events before they ever occur.
In contrast, password policies often give organizations less security than they might otherwise have.
Password change leads to unhealthy user behavior, ranging from rotating password reuse to password failure in areas under protected areas.
But to this day, we insist on these ancient strategies as the basis for how we protect business plans and data.Ironically, we already have the necessary programs to make passwords good (or at least not so bad) again.
Many types of IT monitors have been using password managers for years, if not decades.
But in recent years, I have seen a tendency among many organizations to rely on training as a means of saving their cyber security efforts, rather than addressing the root causes of organizational vulnerability.
These professional cyber security courses from providers like NIIT help in catering to the demand of professionals who are responsible to guide an organisation for better online security.IT leaders will do well to redefine their priorities from training level to track.
