Every October companies and organisations, no matter what their size, observe Cybersecurity Awareness Month. While the awareness around cyber security should always be an ongoing process, Cybersecurity Awareness Month brings into focus the role that individuals and businesses play in how to improve cyber security.
Cyber security awareness involves or refers to how much people or an organisation know and understand about cyber threats, what the risks are and the impact of a cyber attack, and the best practices to prevent cybercrime.
While cybersecurity awareness is the first move for companies and organisations, there are a few steps that should be taken to put in place and reduce exposure to attacks from cyber criminals.
8 ways to improve cyber security
1. Cover the basics
Whether your data is held on-site or in the cloud, it is vital to know how it is protected. It is essential someone knowledgeable takes the lead and drives forward the processes behind network management, email security, and endpoint & mobile solutions.
As digital transformation specialists and an IT solutions provider, we provide cybersecurity solutions to fit unique business requirements and will work closely with you to implement the right security solutions to protect all areas of your infrastructure
2. Know your vulnerabilities
Ask yourself whether your systems and applications are as secure as they possibly could be. If a weakness can be exploited by cybercriminals, you need to be aware of it to protect it. Your vulnerabilities may be flaws, features, or human error and if you are not aware of where you are vulnerable, attackers will look to exploit these areas.
3. Implement company-wide policy
Every business or organisation needs a strong and robust policy that all staff understand and adhere to. While the overarching responsibility should sit with a head of security and assurance, it is important that all employees know what to do if they identify a breach in security and deal with that attack.
4. Access levels
Your network is the engine of your IT system so needs to be protected. Firewalls are the perimeter defence for your infrastructure and provide an electronic security barrier that monitors incoming and outgoing traffic based on security parameters.
5. Train staff to spot threats and red flags
Having employees trained up to spot threats and identify red flags is one of the most important ways to improve cyber security. Employees within the business are the number one cause of security breaches so having them trained on how to spot threats is vital in ensuring your security measures stay secure.
6. Introduce a recovery plan
It is essential to be prepared as even some of the most secure systems can be attacked by cybercriminals. Disaster recovery plans are essential when at risk of cybercrime and identify a businesses critical functions and infrastructure and highlight flaws and steps needed to be made quickly to resume work after an attack.
7. Protect devices
Having strong security and systems in place for devices is important for protecting your data. With more and more businesses adopting remote and hybrid working, now more than ever companies and organisations need to ensure employees are protected and devices are kept up-to-date and software security updates are installed.
We partner with world-leading cyber security providers to offer our clients the most sophisticated protection.
8. Use strong authentication and passwords
Ensure employees are using strong user IDs and passwords for all computers, online accounts, and passwords. Mobile devices can be a big security challenge and securing passwords, online accounts and passwords are vital in the post-pandemic world. One of the most common causes of a cybersecurity breach is weak passwords so ensure employees update with strong passwords.
According to Thycotic, 80% of all cybersecurity breaches involve a weak or stolen password. Cyber security can be improved further by using multi-factor authentication, meaning that to access software, at least one more means of verification is needed.
With the threat of cybercrime rising and always evolving it is important to implement all the processes and solutions available to you.
Cybercriminals are getting smarter, so your security needs to be stronger. Security breaches in your IT can cause you to lose valuable time, money and customers. We can take the stress away from you and implement the right security solutions to protect all areas of your infrastructure, so you can relax knowing your business is secure.
As well as implementing the latest technology into your business, we also act as your own IT consultant. We will work closely with you to understand how your business operates, what you want to achieve, and then we’ll create a solution that works for you.
Whether you have an idea of the services you require or just know the problems you want to solve, we’ll guide you every step of the way.
Get in touch with us today to find out more about our Security solutions.
