How To Protect Your Business From Cyber Attacks

Cybersecurity has been, for a while, set aside as a concern for the IT department. However, as technology continues to advance, more and more people are slowly getting the gist of it. In the business world, you cannot afford to overlook cybersecurity as a core part of running a company. A lot is at stake if certain cybersecurity standards are not met. Here are some of the core cybersecurity tips that you need, to protect your business from any cyber-related risks:

Establish Information Security KPIs

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are meant to help you track the progress of your performance over a certain period. Even for cybersecurity matters, KPIs are necessary to track progress. Some of the metrics you can consider include, number of cyber-attacks, network uptime and downtime, cost of cyber insurance and cyber breaches, number of mitigated threats, to mention a few. Solicit some help from your IT team for analyzing performance based on the KPIs you choose for your business.

Another way that having established security KPIs can help your business is by detecting breaches much faster. If one facet of your system suddenly sees an unusual change in activity, it could be due to a hack or breach. If one user has use behavior that could indicate that they are abusing your service or website. Identifying these users lets you restrict their access or to determine the weaknesses in your businesses data systems.

Restrict Access

A lot of the data breaches that happen in companies result from unauthorized access. As the business owner, you must consider everyone else working with you and for you as a third party. This means that you may be just as liable for the data loss you experience as the person who caused it. Since that is the case, you need to be proactive in limiting access. Have different levels of access, especially for the employees. Allow people to only retrieve the information that is relevant to their job description and to fulfilling their tasks. Once you allow too much freedom in handling data, you risk contempt, data leaks and other numerous security breaches by current or former employees, and also third-party suppliers. The information your business collects and stores is a valuable asset and should be treated as such. If a devious employee gets access to your data, they may use it unethically or in ways that aren’t beneficial to your business. Another reason you should restrict access to your company’s data systems is to maintain control of your company’s security. While your company as a whole may have great security in place, your data is only as secure as the weakest access point in your organization. If every employee is given full access to your database and other resources, it greatly increases your organization’s security risks.

Always Back Up Your Data

In the line of business, you can bet that cyber attacks and other unfortunate situations will occur and when they do, they will negatively affect your business. Knowing this, have a plan to always back up your data. The backups, whether from cloud service providers like Ottomatik.io, or with mere tapes and hard drives, provide you with copies of documents to bank on in the event of any disasters. Computers do crash, and hard drives fail. Losing information from your servers is like losing money from your bank account. But it can easily be avoided by routinely backing up your data.

Conduct a Cyber-Risk Assessment for Your Company

Whether you know it or not, your business is always at risk and a target by cybercriminals. A cyber-risk assessment can help you analyze the status quo of your company, identifying any loopholes that will compromise your safety. For one, as a business, you need to comply with the government regulatory compliance requirements, including GDPR, and other data-privacy laws. Such an assessment will help you align with all the necessary requirements while pointing out any missing security policies, procedures, and processes necessary for execution. It’s important to know which of your company’s data is the most valuable to anyone who may figure out how to access it. You should focus on securing this information first, with the highest level of data protection. People are unlikely to try to hack into a system to access worthless information, so your security policies should prioritize your most valuable data.

Update Your Software and Programs

Your devices do not run on their own, they rely on software and programs to make them useful. If you don’t review the applications that your organization and its employees are using, you may be leaving yourself vulnerable to security loopholes. This can only mean that you are not getting as much from your computers as you should. The updates you perform have patches that help keep you secure from some cybersecurity risks. For one, programmers launch an update after fixing a security loophole they had identified. Make it a habit to run updates on your device to stay protected.

Set Up a Firewall

While you can be cautious with all your dealings online, there are always those few times where you will make the wrong move. If not you, perhaps your employees. Since you cannot fully control that, have a firewall to guard your network and servers against any possible threats. As you exercise caution on email and surfing on different sites on the web, the firewall will protect your devices from any attacks that bypass you. While at it, train your employees on the small basics of taking caution when online. For example, warn them against clicking on any foreign links, or downloading any kind of documents and files online.

Conclusion: Privacy and Security is Good for Business

Many of the largest companies in the world today rely heavily on data. These companies amass huge amounts of data about their users and how users interact with their products. The databases they maintain are like goldmines full of data. Any company would love to have this data to optimize based on consumer behavior and preferences. Keeping data protected and secure instills trust in your user base and keeps other companies from benefiting from your company’s data. Data breaches cost companies millions of dollars to recover from. It takes time to recover trust from customers if they’ve been impacted by a breach. If you prioritize privacy and security from the beginning so it’s intricately woven into your business model, your company will be better off in the long run. Privacy and security are vital for businesses in all industries.