Cyberattacks have become rampant in the business world. Bad actors are finding more and more ways to exploit systems, getting increasingly creative with their hacks. If you listen to the news regularly, you know that hacking has made big headlines recently.
Because of the proliferation of cybercrime, protecting your business from cybercriminals has become more important than ever.
And even though cybercriminals continue to use malware and viruses (their good ol’ trusty tools), they have found an attack that is 100% effective in extorting big-fish victims: ransomware.
The reason is that the majority of organizations prefer to pay a ransom and get access to their data rather than losing it all.
So, to protect your organization from cybercriminals, it is better that you take steps right now. The longer you wait, the greater the chance of falling victim to an attack. Here are some ways in which you can protect your business from hackers.
Improve your password creation and management skills
Using common passwords (or not changing the default passwords of your desktop, mobile, and networking devices) is the worst, most reckless thing anyone can do nowadays. Educate your employees about the risks and consequences of not creating strong and unique passwords correctly.
It is also important to reiterate that as part of a good password sanitation practice, they should change them often. Your employees need to be constant on this. The more they do it, the better and stronger their passwords will be.
When done enough times, it will come easier to include case-sensitive characters, multiple numbers, and random symbols.
They must keep in mind that a good password is the first line of defense against hackers, so slacking off and putting their guard down is not an option.
Step up your password creation game by implementing the right tools. Keep hackers away by using enterprise password vault software to manage passwords for all your accounts.
Communicate with your team
Communicating regularly with the team about cyber attacks is critical. Commonly, people learn from their mistakes and carelessness, but all it takes is a single compromised incident to put an organization at risk.
Regular meetings on how different cyberattacks can occur and their prevention steps help prepare your team in advance for the worst-case scenario in case of a data breach.
Reinforce these kinds of meetings to highlight the consequences of cyberattacks. Talk about how the company’s reputation could be affected if they do not take the security of the customer data seriously.
Discuss social engineering and the anatomy of phishing attacks. InfoSec offers great resources that you can share with your team. They even hold group and team training sessions that can help your employees to better identify phishing emails.
They will also get a chance to see how hackers use similar-looking domains that can redirect victims to replicas of popular websites and platforms your organization may be using.
Encourage the use of these learning resources and discuss enterprise password vault software as an option to store complex passwords.
Update your software
The simplest and most basic action that many organizations don’t take is to update systems and software regularly. It can be your company’s software, content management platforms, or any other tool you or your team use.
Tech companies take cybersecurity seriously, so they keep on patching buggy code to reduce vulnerabilities in their software. So, tell your team to install software updates as soon as they are available in the devices they use to access their work accounts and platforms.
You can also select the auto-update feature that will automatically update the software and tools you use. Frequently updating your systems can protect your data from being hacked.
Limit access and block unnecessary sites
Limiting access to online information can lower the risk of a data breach. It is good practice, after all, to make sure only authorized users see certain data or use specific tools they will be working with directly.
Similarly, blocking suspicious sites also reduces the chances of viruses, spyware, and malware-carrying websites from being accessed through your company’s network.
Take the necessary steps to blacklist social media and malicious sites and make sure that your antivirus program is up to date in case a critical situation arises.
Make sure your data is encrypted
Cybercriminals mostly focus on two things: stealing money and creating chaos. If your company’s data, credit card accounts, banking routing digits, and employees’ social security numbers are stored in plain text files, this can be a gold mine for hackers.
To avoid attackers from hitting the jackpot, use data encryption tools. Encrypting your data is a must, especially if it needs to travel over the internet (otherwise known as “in-transit” data). It’s easy and it only takes a few minutes to activate and set up these tools.
You can also encrypt the data in your hard drive by using the vault feature. Once the vault is “on”, it will encrypt every program and file stored in your hard disk.
Conclusion
Securing your company against hackers is not easy, and no system or software can provide complete protection against cyberattacks. But you can still maintain your organization secure! It is not rocket science, so do not be intimidated or discouraged.
By taking the above-mentioned steps, you can help secure your business and user data. Make privacy and security the key focus of your organization, educate your employees and customers, and remain on top of updates to mitigate security risks and deter threats.
