15 Ways Secure Your Business In The Cyber World
Recent data breaches indicate that no business is safe from cyber invasion, regardless of size, type, or location. While 81% of all breaches happen to small and medium-sized enterprises, projections further show that one in every five small businesses will face a data breach this year.
However, 97% of breaches can be prevented with today’s robust technology. This now calls for heightened cyber security awareness. Here, we present 15 simple ways to secure your hardware efficiently, establish robust firewalls, encrypt and back up critical data, and build a security-centric culture.
Security Assessment
A cyber-security assessment is an exhaustive look at your security protocols and data management processes to unearth vulnerabilities. You should conduct a periodic cyber risk assessment of your business to establish a safety baseline and seal any existing vulnerabilities. Security awareness helps you to recognize threats and safely handle your technologies. How can this step help your business?
1. Galvanize Your Security Processes
Conducting a security assessment is an excellent opportunity to galvanize your security measures, catalog any areas of weakness and set competent budgets for the future.
2. Broaden Employee Cyber Awareness
Apart from providing a broad perspective of your security procedures, assessments enable you to teach employees how to tamper-proof their cyber engagements. As they expose vulnerabilities, assessments outline the areas where employees are lax. At Veltec Networks, we can help you to curate an excellent cyber security training program.
3. Boosting Productivity
Conducting a security assessment on your business will help you identify software issues, and pick out outdated hardware and any other system vulnerabilities that may expose you to attacks. As much as they are a safety issue, most of these vulnerabilities also slow down business operations and general employee productivity. Older hardware versions, coupled with outdated systems and incompatible software, lead to frequent downtime and lowered productivity. Identifying these issues and solving them will generate synergies that increase your productivity.
Managed Intelligent SPAM Action
Email remains the most accessible and most convenient medium for business communication. However, this comes with a caveat, as it is common to receive random emails containing dubious links and malicious attachments.
Most cyber-attacks come from email phishing. Protecting yourself against email attacks will involve:
- Not replying to Spam messages.
- Not posting email addresses publicly.
- Installing spam filtering tools and Antivirus software.
- Avoid entering work email addresses on platforms outside work.
Secure your Email to limit SPAM attacks. Veltec Networks will help you choose an intelligent spam management service to reduce your exposure to email attacks.
Password Protection
As the ultimate keys to the kingdom, passwords are a critical weak spot. Ensure to install robust security policies on your network to protect against password theft. This will include enhancing password policies, denying or limiting USB file storage access, setting user screen timeouts, and restricting user access. You should rotate the passwords on your devices at least every ninety days. Also, do not write down passwords on hard copy or any other unsecured medium. Do not store passwords online without solid encryption, and make sure to use different passwords for your business accounts and personal accounts.
Security Awareness
Ensure you periodically expose yourself and other team players to cyber-security training. An ounce of prevention training once in a while will save you from certain harm. Ensure you keep abreast of current trends in data security. You can also contract a cyber-security firm to shore up these defenses. We offer comprehensive web-based training to equip you with all the current best practices in cyber protection.
Advanced End-point Detection & Response
While standard antivirus products equip you with a significant level of protection from malware, trends are changing, and more powerful tools are emerging. Advanced Endpoint Detection & Response is an emerging software that overhauls your outdated antivirus solution and protects against file-less and script-based threats. Apart from establishing a firewall, this new technology has the capability of rolling back a ransomware attack. Equip your business with this latest tool and save your data from prying eyes.
Multi-Factor Authentication
You must have come across two-factor authentication on your Gmail or some other smartphone application. Multi-factor authentication offers additional protection on your network. Just as most bank vaults require more than one key to open, multi-factor authentication ensures that whenever your password gets compromised, you retain a margin of safety. Employ multi-factor authentication across all your networks for added protection.
Keep up with Software Updates
Most of us are prone to ignoring software update prompts. Ensure you have the current versions of all your computer software. It is also the case that sometimes it gets confusing trying to keep up with all the diverse updates on your PC. At Veltec networks, we offer a critical update service complete with automation to protect your devices from the latest known cyber-attacks.
Darkweb Monitoring
Most malicious players sell breached information on the Darkweb. Monitor the dark web as frequently as you can to ensure you don’t have a leak. Darkweb monitoring will help you to contain data breaches and even stop some in real-time. We offer Darkweb scanning services and take action to protect your business from stolen credentials posted for sale.
SIEM/Log Management
Security Incident and Event Management employ powerful big data engines to review all the security and event logs on your covered devices to protect against advanced threats. This tool checks to see if you are being probed for an attack and promptly alerts you. Ensure you always turn this feature on across all your devices.
Web Gateway Security
Employ cloud-based security to detect and block web and email threats from your network as they become available on the internet.
Mobile Device Security
Mobile devices are now increasingly sophisticated and are potential grounds for data breaches. We are prone to lapse on securing our mobile phones as they are always with us. Ensure your device is sufficiently password-protected and avoid connecting to unsecured public Wi-Fi networks. You can also install mobile security software for additional protection at a small cost.
Firewall
Control what gets in and out of your network by keeping up a firewall and continually sending log information to your SIEM. You can reach out to us whenever you face any complications.
Encryption
Protect your files from unintended audiences by encrypting them. Ensure all your files are encrypted at all times and across all devices, including phones.
Backup
Use the 3-2-1 strategy to back up your data with three copies on the local device, two in the cloud and one offline and offsite backup for each month. All along, check to ensure that your backups are working, and reach out to us if you have any hitches.
Cyber Insurance
Take cyber insurance cover to protect you from harm in cyberspace. However, always ensure you have maintained a high level of cyber security in adherence to the conditions of your insurance cover.
There you go. Integrate these 15 tips to bolster your cyber security and watch your business grow without hitches. Veltec Networks is a pioneering cyber-security and IT management firm based out of San Francisco’s Bay Area. For additional tips, feel free to reach out to us.
