Today, security is often considered to be one of the biggest concerns for businesses. This makes sense, considering any type of data breach – whether it’s an isolated incident or if it’s a part of a larger hacking campaign against your business – can cost your business dearly in terms of lost revenue, replacement costs, and damaged reputation. Cyberattacks are one of the biggest threats that businesses face today, which is why you should take all possible steps to ensure that you’re perfectly secure against these types of events. The following are some tips on how to do this.
1. Hire IT Experts
Even when you have an in-house IT team, chances are they are chosen to do the things you need to keep other parts of your business up and running. Safeguarding against cyber threats is a specialized field of IT that requires not only extensive know-how but also time and effort that someone that has other things to do during their work hours might not be able to provide. Comprehensive infrastructure development and maintenance, complete with a dedicated consultant and account manager, as noted by the people at Mustard IT support is something you want to look for when hiring IT experts. That way, you can have top-of-the-line infrastructure that will take care of your company’s IT needs, while enabling your own IT team to work on other projects related to your business. In addition, you should not only hire experts who have a good reputation and a solid portfolio but also work with them to come up with a plan that will ensure the security of your business from cyberattacks – this includes hiring top-notch penetration testers as well as building an accurate picture of your company’s security vulnerabilities.
2. Antivirus
While an antivirus program isn’t an end-all-be-all of cyber security it’s certainly a good place to start. Not all of them are made the same though, so it’s important to look at the top-rated antivirus software and choose the one that matches your business’s needs and requirements. You should also ask yourself if you’ll need a managed antivirus or be able to manage it yourself as well as find out about licensing costs and what other equipment you might require. In addition, remember to keep your antivirus software up to date at all times – this is important to make sure it can protect you from the latest threats. Remember that cyber threats come in many different forms – sometimes it’s as blatant as a hacker trying to gain access to your data or corrupt your files, while other times it’s as simple as getting a virus from opening an email, downloading a file, or plugging in a corrupted USB drive. While the antivirus won’t be of much help in the first case, it should be more than enough in the second.
3. VPN
Another effective way to ward off cyber threats is by installing a VPN in your company. This will allow you and your employees to access the Internet safely and securely, protecting them from unsecured public WiFi networks as well as ensuring that no one can monitor their Internet activity. While there are many different types of VPN software to choose from it’s important to look at your company’s requirements and choose a service that will allow you not only to access the Internet safely but also have enough bandwidth for all of your employees. It’s also good if the VPN you choose offers unlimited usage, as this is more cost-effective in the long run. In addition, make sure that you do your research on the main features, benefits, and drawbacks of different VPN services before you make the final decision – while some might offer better encryption support others will come with faster streaming speeds, and finding a good balance between those is important.
4. Train Employees On Computer Safety
Making sure your employees know how to use the internet safely and responsibly is always recommended. There are different ways in which you can do this, and holding mandatory training sessions on computer security for all of them is definitely at the top of the list. That way, everyone in your company will be able to recognize malware attacks and avoid opening suspicious emails or downloading dangerous software, while also keeping their passwords secure and making sure they don’t divulge any sensitive information – such as passwords or company secrets. While it may seem obvious that they shouldn’t do this, it’s not always clear what sensitive information is, especially to someone that isn’t exactly tech-savvy. For example, discussing the details of a project in an email or on an instant messaging service that’s not encrypted, or talking about the security system the company has in place with someone doesn’t necessarily seem like a problem, but it is.
5. Have A Risk Management Plan
Like most things, cyber security is a matter of planning and preparation – which means that you need to have a risk management plan in place before anything happens. That way, you’ll be able to identify the biggest threats to your company’s data as well as know what needs to be done in order to protect it from those threats. In addition, it will also allow you to identify some of the biggest security breaches that your business might face as well as know what steps need to be taken in order to keep those from happening. This is extremely important if your company doesn’t use any sort of antivirus or VPN and instead relies on the firewall and other equipment installed. That said, even if it does have all of these things, it’s still better to be prepared for the worst in order to be able to minimize the damage if something were to happen.
6. Monitor All Systems And Devices
While it’s good to make sure that your company’s data is secure, you also need to monitor all of the systems and devices connected to it in order to do that. For example, if someone were to get access to one of your computers or even just infect it with malware then they would be able to connect directly into your network and see all of the information on there. That’s why it’s important to monitor all connected devices, even those that seem relatively harmless – like printers and scanners. That way, you can not only oversee periodically if the employees are using the company computers per instructions, but you’ll also be in a better position to notice foul play if someone is attempting to access the information on them. If your company has Privileged Access Management in place, then it will be easier for you to tackle all of these things.
As you can see there are many things that you need to keep in mind when trying to perfect the security of your business. Yet, even with all these measures in place, cyberattacks will continue to be a major issue for companies around the world and that’s why it’s important that you always ensure that your data is safe by staying up to date with the latest trends and practices. That way, you’ll be able to minimize the damage if a successful attack is executed and there will be no need to implement an extensive recovery plan.
