How to Protect Your Business From Cyber Attacks: 6 Steps To Do More With Less

Cyber attacks continue to grow in scope, sophistication and frequency. Nearly every sector is affected by cybercrime from the agricultural business through the fashion industry to the healthcare sector and even retail. The rising cost of digital attacks means that hackers can now demand hundreds of thousands of dollars for access to hacked networks or stolen information, making it more financially attractive for hackers to target businesses than ever before. Businesses must implement a layered cybersecurity strategy in order to protect their company from cyberattacks while also doing more with less and operating as efficiently as possible. The good news is that there are many ways that a smaller business can better protect their business against cyberattacks. In this article we outline six actionable steps you can take right away in order to do more with less and reduce your company's risk of being attacked by hackers.

Step 1: Create a comprehensive cybersecurity plan

Most businesses start to evaluate their cybersecurity posture, but few have a comprehensive plan in place to protect their data. From the procurement of hardware and software to establish a comprehensive cybersecurity solution to manage the environment. Companies should think about the following questions when creating their cybersecurity strategy:

What activities do you want to protect?
Who are the relevant parties?
How is data going to be used?
Where is data located?
What is the data format?
What are the sources of data?
What is the data value?
Who is affected by the data?
What are the legal requirements regarding data security?

Step 2: Educate staff on cybersecurity basics

Nearly every business and sector has been affected by cyberattacks, so it is important that employees within the business have some understanding of basic cybersecurity concepts and best practices. This includes:

The need to have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy in place to protect data.
Establishing a policy around data privacy and protection.
Educating staff on the need to follow strict data hygiene practices.
Educating staff on the risk of phishing emails and malicious attachments.
Educating staff on the need to avoid opening links and attachments from unknown sources.
Educating staff on the need to only use authorized software and hardware.
Educating staff on the need to report any suspicious network or device behaviour immediately.

Step 3: Install security software and hardware

As an organization's data grows and is stored in multiple locations, it becomes much more difficult for hackers to access it. While this is ideal for most companies, it does require significant investment. In many instances, it is more cost effective to purchase a new computer than to upgrade an old one with a high-speed network to support the new computer. While investing in new hardware may be an effective strategy in the long-run, it may be an effective strategy in the short-term. New hardware can also be a significant risk, as the organization must ensure that the hardware meets the organization's security requirements, and that it is up to date. In addition to updating the hardware, organizations should ensure that the new hardware is configured properly, including configuring it to prevent activities such as remote access and data exfiltration.

Step 4: Encrypt data

Data security is an important part of any cybersecurity strategy. Encrypting data, especially when it is at rest and when it is transmitted over networks, such as the internet, will protect your data from being read by unauthorized parties. With the right encryption solution, you can ensure that only authorized parties can access the data, and that it is safely stored. Encryption protects data both in transit and at rest. Encryption at rest refers to data that is stored on a device, such as a hard drive, laptop or desktop computer. Another example of data that is at rest is a database stored in the cloud. Data in transit is data that is being transmitted, such as when an employee is sending an email. Data that is being transmitted is not considered to be at rest.

Step 5: Limit access to only authorized users

Limiting who has access to the network and data helps to prevent unauthorized access. This includes limiting access to employees, as well as monitoring network traffic and filtering content, while blocking known malicious websites and URLs. The best way to limit access is to use a network monitoring and monitoring software to see what addresses are accessing the network and see what content is being accessed. This can help prevent employees from accessing non-work related content on the network or accessing malicious content.

Step 6: Establish regular cyber threat intelligence monitoring and reporting

Cyber threat intelligence is the process of gathering, analyzing and sharing information among the cyber security community about malicious cyber activity. Organizations must regularly monitor for and report any significant changes or anomalies detected in their network.

Conclusion

Businesses that want to protect themselves from cyberattacks must take a layered approach to cyber security. The first factor is to ensure that the technology that is used to protect the network is up to date and up to date. Second is to ensure that the employees using the technology are knowledgeable about how to use it properly. Lastly, the organization should have a comprehensive cybersecurity plan in place. These six steps will help to better protect your company from cyberattacks. By implementing these security measures, you can do more with less and protect your data from being stolen or accessed by hackers.