Keeping your data secure is more difficult today than in any time in history. Not only does everyone need to be vigilant in the way they operate online, they are constantly inundated with security-first protocols that can really get tiresome when you are working at a computer for dozens of hours a week. Unfortunately, this is the norm now and if you are not proactive when it comes to your cybersecurity efforts, you could find securing your business’ technology much more difficult.
What Does It Mean to Be Proactive?
Cybersecurity is all about mitigating potential threats to help you avoid situations where your business would be compromised should an attack land. It’s all about proactivity. The more you can get out in front of issues, the better positioned your organization will be in avoiding them or reducing the impact of them. This is the obvious goal. Unfortunately, it’s not always so easy.
This is why a determined, deliberate strategy to combat threats is so important. Not only does every organization need the tools in place that will make a comprehensive cybersecurity platform work, but they also need to have the strategies to arm their staff to effectively mitigate would-be threats.
How to Reduce Your Risk
Let’s take a look at a solid multi-faceted effort to reduce the organizational risk that comes from cyberattacks.
Deploy Tools
There are specific tools that every organization needs to keep cyberattacks at bay. They include:
Firewalls
A firewall functions as a barrier between your network and external threats. Firewalls monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic. This means that you get the data you need, while blocking a lot of the other stuff that can be a threat to your business.
Endpoint Protection
Endpoint protection platforms and Endpoint Detection and Response basically replace the old antivirus and antimalware platforms that you may use on a personal computer. These systems work to prevent viruses and malware, identify irregular activity, and offer robust remediation of issues to help keep your business’ network and infrastructure secure.
Have a Proactive Strategy
One of the best ways to reduce your risk of threats is to have a proactive strategy. A couple of things you can do to stay proactive are:
Keep Software Updated
You will want to keep all of the software that your business depends on updated and patched with the latest updates. Developers are constantly patching potential vulnerabilities and providing new security updates to their software; not to mention additional functionality. Having a patch management strategy in place will ensure that your software is regularly updated and will be less apt to be a vector of attack.
Back Up Your Data
Having a strong data backup strategy in place can save your organization a lot of headaches. There are quite literally billions of phishing emails sent each day. If one were to negatively impact your business, you could be in a world of hurt if you don’t have a reliable backup and recovery strategy.
Train Your Staff
Your staff is on the front lines of your business’ cybersecurity so having a training strategy in place is mandatory for today’s digitally-run businesses.
Passwords
Every person should know some of the password best practices, such as having unique and complex passwords for each account, using upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols in your passwords, and how to store passwords so that the associated accounts won’t be compromised.
Phishing Detection
As we mentioned above, there are billions of phishing emails sent each day around the world. That means that everyone in your organization will likely encounter some type of potential phishing attack. You need to train your staff on how to identify a phishing message. Some tips include misspellings in the text of an otherwise official-looking email, an urgency to act from the content of the email, and the sender’s address that doesn’t match up with the organization that is supposedly sending you the message. Teach your employees to spot signs and verify the sender of the email (or text message) so that you don’t fall victim to the scam.
Cybersecurity demands vigilance, but Compudata can help. Our team of dedicated IT professionals understand how to protect your business from the perils lurking online. For more information about how we can help your organization improve its cybersecurity efforts, give us a call today at 1-855-405-8889.