Cybercriminals are continuously advancing and evolving their hacking techniques to access data. Because of this, it’s your responsibility as the company owner to implement new and innovative cybersecurity approaches to keep these hackers at bay. Due to the pandemic, working remotely has become the new normal, this greatly exposes your company to the risk of a cyberattack. That’s why it’s a lot more essential to strengthen your cybersecurity today.
With this in mind, it makes perfect sense to think about the best business risk management to prevent your company from being another victim of a cyberattack. After all, it’s better to stay safe than be sorry. So, without further ado, here are innovative approaches to boost your company’s cybersecurity.
Utilize Security Patch Management
You must never get too confident with your current cybersecurity system because hackers continually find creative techniques to subvert your cybersecurity protocols. Because of this, you need to always be one step ahead of hackers, and a security patch management solution helps you do this. This service and solution help you in various ways by;
- Installing upgrades that safeguard your data from vulnerabilities
- Ensuring your systems are updated
- Reducing downtime
It’s evident that security patches do come in handy. And thanks to these regular updates released by software manufacturers, you’ll be able to better protect your company from a possible cyberattack.
Regularly Back Up Your Data
Backing up your data might look like an old-school approach to safeguard your company’s sensitive data. However, this practice is highly advised by every executive leadership consulting firm such as Navalent. This is necessary to protect yourself from a ransomware attack, where hackers limit you from accessing your data until you pay them a ransom. And with many companies switching to the remote working model, incidences of ransomware attacks continue to increase due to greater implementation of cloud storage.
Therefore, it’s best to be well-prepared for a ransomware attack by regularly backing up your data since it’s one of the most common types of cyberattacks. You can do this by copying your data across different networks and platforms. This way, you’ll be able to prevent delays in your company operations because you can still have access to your data thanks to the backup in the cloud or external hard drive.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Human error is one of the main factors that increase a company’s exposure to a cyberattack. One-click from an unknown link and you could let viruses in your company computers. You can prevent this from happening by conducting cybersecurity awareness workshops periodically. After all, humans are the weakest link to your organization’s cybersecurity. You need to train your employees as this allows them to be familiar with the two most common cyber threats that face the company - ransomware and phishing.
Training may appear to be an added expense for many small to medium-scale businesses. Because of this, they tend to overlook employee training to save money and use it in other areas. However, this could end up costing the company a lot more money in the event of a cyberattack as employees are not aware of malicious links and techniques on how to manage data security. This is why cybersecurity training needs to be one of your top agendas, to protect yourself from scams and hackers.
Promote A Culture Of Cybersecurity
Even if your company isn’t an IT provider, it’s still important to foster a cybersecurity culture in the workplace. By doing this, everyone in the company will realize that each of them plays an important role in safeguarding the company’s data. As a result, they’ll be highly motivated to prevent the company’s sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. Additionally, creating a cybersecurity culture helps your employees better understand lessons taught in their training.
One way you can promote a cybersecurity culture is by implementing policies and procedures on how to handle sensitive company data. The procedures outline when, how, and what needs to be done when handling sensitive company data. On the other hand, policies are an overview of the company’s principles and usually involves things such as;
- Password creation and management
- Rules on accepted use
- Remote access
You can also use policy management software that manages, distributes, and tracks policies and procedures of your organization to better engage employees with specific cybersecurity aspects they need to know.
Upgrade The Cloud Security
The use of traditional hard drives to store company data is now a thing of the past, with many companies nowadays opting for cloud data storage. This switch has been brought about since cloud data storage is convenient and cost-effective. However, some cloud data storage solutions don’t have high-tech security features to prevent data breaches, which makes it important to carefully choose the best one available in the market.
Some of the reliable options you should consider are Google, DropBox, and OneDrive. With any of these options, you’re guaranteed regular cloud security updates to counter any advanced techniques hackers might have developed. Besides these, you can also use Sync.com, pCloud, and Icedrive.
Routinely Check For Vulnerabilities
It’s easy to get comfortable and assume you’re safe after adopting a particular cybersecurity defense system. However, as mentioned before, this is a costly mistake that you must never make because hackers are constantly sharpening their skills to know how to penetrate your system. Because of this, it’s advisable to carry out vulnerability testing and simulate cyberattacks to check for any possible weaknesses. And after identifying the vulnerabilities, you’ll be able to know what upgrades are needed to further enhance your company’s data security.
Experts recommend that you test for possible weaknesses in your data system at least once a year. After all, it’s only by doing this that you’ll be able to determine the potential cybersecurity risks that your business is exposed to, hence better preventing them.
Know The Risks
Cybercriminals employ different tactics as they try to access your company’s crucial information. And to prevent cyberattacks from happening, the best place to start would be learning the different techniques they might use to access your data system. Some of the common forms of cyberattacks to look out for include;
- DDoS: This means denial of service, and it involves hackers preventing legitimate users from accessing their devices, systems, or networks. They do this by flooding your internet service provider (ISP), network, or cloud service provider with illegitimate traffic. Consequently, this causes the targeted network system or site to slow down or stop altogether due to overloading.
- Phishing: This is one of the most common forms of cyberattacks. The process involves collecting sensitive data such as credit card information and login credentials using legit-looking sites. This fraudulent collection of sensitive information often happens through email. They take advantage of the targeted person’s emotions in the process by manipulating or scaring them.
- Malware: This is an abbreviation for malicious software, and it involves introducing a particular program to a target’s computer to either gain unapproved access or cause damage. The different types of malware attacks include spyware, worms, viruses, Trojans, and ransomware.
In addition to these, you should also be aware of other cybersecurity risks such as Man-in-the-Middle, zero-day attacks, structured query language (SQL) injection attacks, and password attacks.
Leverage Managed Services
Many small to medium-sized businesses are often on a tight budget, thus they can’t afford to hire staff in charge of running the cybersecurity department. Luckily, there’s an option that comes in handy during such times, which is outsourcing cybersecurity duties to a managed IT service provider. This way, you can ensure to get professional help from skilled IT experts. In addition, you can save yourself time trying to enhance your company’s cybersecurity measures and protocols.
By outsourcing cybersecurity duties to a managed IT service provider, you can enjoy numerous services, including;
- Security assessment to determine the best plan to implement to protect your company from a cyberattack.
- Monitoring of systems 24/7 to prevent cyberattacks and provide you with immediate on-site or remote response in the event of a cyberattack.
- Installing of software patches.
- Encryption and storing of your data backups.
With these benefits, leveraging the services of a managed service provider is, without a doubt, advantageous in helping you safeguard your company from hackers.
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication
In the past, having one password that’s difficult to guess would be enough to protect your network or account. Nowadays, this is no longer enough, a multi-factor authentication is much more recommended. The multi-factor authentication system requires you to provide two or more extra authenticators before being granted access to a system.
Usually, multi-factor authentication combines elements such as text messages, security questions, emails, or biometrics to provide an extra level of protection from hackers. It comes in handy if your password gets compromised, as it protects your system from being accessed.
Takeaway
Regardless of your company’s size, it’s best to implement proper cybersecurity measures to prevent and neutralize cyberattacks. In addition, these measures can help you recover from data breaches. This guide has outlined useful cybersecurity approaches that you can adopt to prevent losing hundreds to thousands of dollars due to a cyberattack. With these tips, you can save yourself from unwanted legal consequences, disruption, and reputational damage.
Lucy Sharp is a cybersecurity expert with more than 15 years of experience in the tech industry. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience on cybersecurity by writing blogs and guest posts. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading books, hiking, swimming, and boating.
