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Your customers trust you — trust that you are doing everything possible to maintain a secure environment, even if they don’t always realize the type of threats that are on the horizon. It’s your job to protect your business, your customers and your employees from the type of infiltration that can happen in minutes yet take weeks or even months to resolve. Cyber risks are growing on a daily basis and businesses of all sizes are being targeted by everything from phishing attacks and ransomware to targeted infiltrations of your systems in search of sensitive (and valuable!) customer data points. Maintaining an active security posture is crucial for your business and cybersecurity pros know how to help you keep your business on high alert. See how implementing these tips in your business can help protect your business from hackers and from poor decisions by staff members.
Protecting your business against a threat starts with understanding the scope, and our growing dependence on technology makes all types of businesses vulnerable to an attack. The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce recently released a quick Cybersecurity 101 document that can help business owners grasp the risks, threats and vulnerabilities that exist online and how they can impact your business. They are partnering with the national STOP. THINK. CONNECT.(TM) campaign, which is a public awareness effort aimed at encouraging individuals and businesses to be suspicious of specific online behaviors and practice safer habits when working in a networked environment.
Maintaining a high level of awareness online isn’t enough, you may need to take more aggressive actions to protect your organization from the threat of attack. Here are a few tips from cybersecurity professionals at Nexus IT Consultants, an IT consultancy dedicated to improving awareness and education for Utah businesses.
1. Ongoing training is crucial. Experts note that 92% of malware is delivered via email, and users need to be trained to know how to spot a malicious email or phishing attack. These can take a variety of forms, from a simple request from an executive to purchase gift cards for them to a targeted attack on a bookkeeping team member requesting payment for a vendor in a new or unusual way. Threats are continually evolving, meaning training cannot simply be “one and done” — it needs to be ongoing in order to fully protect your organization.
2. Active monitoring helps to identify attacks. Shockingly, it takes businesses an average of 191 days to notice that there’s been an attack against the organization. That means hackers can have infiltrated your business data and continue to gain benefit from new information that is brought into your organization until the breach is repaired. Active monitoring gets you one step closer to closing any security gaps quickly and allows you to notify any users of a breach within compliance guidelines.
3. A robust firewall can protect your business systems and data. A firewall is a set of related programs that can reduce the possibility that an attacker can infiltrate your organization. While not infallible, a robust firewall is a part of nearly every cybersecurity strategy because it can keep low-level nuisance attacks at a minimum.
4. Limit employee and contractor access to business systems and data. Your data and systems are the lifeblood of your organization, and it’s all too easy for staff members or contractors to make a bad decision that could negatively impact your organization. Regularly review system access to ensure that individuals no longer with your organization have relinquished all access and put systems in place that remove contractors from your rolls and revoke their access as soon as their contract has expired.
5. Refine your password requirements. You don’t realize that something as simple as a network password could be the downfall of your organization, but it happens to businesses all the time. When you refine your password requirements and become extremely stringent with the time-frame of changes, you’re helping reduce the possibility that a cybercriminal could penetrate your first level of defense.
Getting started securing your business from cyber threats doesn’t have to be overwhelming. When you work with the professionals at Nexus IT Consultants, you’ll receive a free cybersecurity analysis and action plan for your business. Contact us today at 801-839-7006 to get started or visit us online to fill out our form for a quick response.