Posted on May 9, 2021
Security
Are you afraid of your company becoming a target of hackers and cybercriminals? Do you want to improve your security practices to keep your company data safe and secure?
Throughout 2020, the activity of hackers and cybercriminals increased by 600%. That year, cybercriminals attacked 4,000 people each day. It was the peak of the pandemic, and since most operations moved online, so did criminal actions.
Even though it’s already 2021, most businesses already moved their operations online. If you plan to upgrade your business soon, you should consider upgrading security, too. Keep reading for a guide on the best security practices to adopt for your business.
The first thing you need to do when you’re planning to upgrade your security measures is to design a strategy. When you design a security strategy, you must also do a review of your current security protocols. This review will show you where your security is lacking or weak and what types of risks you’re facing.
Once you know the problems and potential issues, you can start thinking of solutions for them. This is when you can also start researching new solutions to constant troubles. However, if you’re using new tools, you should also check that they’re operative and efficient.
Your strategy should also include testing, especially for new security programs or practices. Don’t stop at creating a strategy for setting up security solutions only. You should also know what the next steps are when you experience security breaches.
Your strategy should include different ways of isolating and locking down vital data. You should also know how to proceed to recover lost data. Keep this strategy updated each time you update your security, so it’s useful and relevant.
As we progress forward, the world is adopting wireless connections more and more. However, even cybercriminals are improving their skills for hacking wireless networks. This is one reason why stronger wireless network security is crucial.
Wireless networks can get hacked, especially if they’re not secured well. Wireless networks are some of the easiest things to hack. Even though you have encryption, professionals can get past them without blinking.
The solution is to strengthen your router by adding strong encryption settings. You should also turn off the broadcasting function, which makes the network invisible. If hackers can’t see your wireless networks, they can’t hack them.
There’s always a possibility that your business data will get stolen or taken. It may be from a hacking or cybersecurity breach. Or it can be an inside job, with an employee doing the work instead of persons on the outside.
If this happens, you can add a layer of protection to your data that will keep them from accessing your data. That solution is to encrypt your business data. Without the decryption code, the data thief can’t open or access the data.
You can find a ton of encryption and decryption tools and programs to secure your data. It’s a good practice to encrypt data stored in flash drives, hard drives, tablets, laptops, and more. You should also consider encrypting full disks instead of only a selection of files.
Let’s say you’ve got top-notch cybersecurity and protection integrated into your network. You’re confident that nothing can get past your safeguards and firewalls. You also keep employees from bringing home or copying data into external drives.
The software you use is wonderful for data organization, too. Yet, what if a blackout or fire destroys your computers and digital storage devices?
If you didn’t back them up in a cloud, you’ve likely lost all that vital data.
One of the most useful security practices today is to create a backup of everything. Most often, people the cloud for backups and daily operations. One of the pros of cloud computing is that your data is available to you anytime and anywhere as long as you’re online.
However, you don’t always need to put your backups on a cloud. You can also place your backups in physical drives, which you can store in a secure room. Don’t forget to encrypt your backup data as well before you store it.
Another important step to ensuring business security is to protect against malware. Anti-malware and anti-virus apps are your first line of defense against malware/viruses. Malicious programs and software can damage your data and computers.
The most common way of receiving them is through clicking suspicious links, spam emails, and pop-ups. Keep your emails clean by using antispam software. You should also train your employees to ignore suspicious emails and links.
The firewall is also a vital key that makes up your first line of defense against viruses and malware. It’s often not enough to keep these harmful things away, but it’s good to keep it up. Ensure that your router’s firewall is also up whenever you’re using it.
Did you know that cybercriminals can get up to $1.5 trillion each year? You can imagine how large their victims’ losses are. To keep your company from becoming a victim too, always update your software and programs.
Most operating systems and antivirus updates can take time. Yet, you don’t want to ignore or delay these updates. However, it’s better to sacrifice time spent on updating them rather than open yourself to data risks.
Some software and operating systems let you choose specific times for updates. Set these update times to occur once your employees have clocked out or have yet to clock in. This way, the updates don’t meddle with their working schedule.
Patches are important to keeping your data secure, too. They aren’t as resource-hungry as operating system updates. You should set patches and improvements to update in the background.
Human error is one of the biggest reasons behind security risks and data breaches. Remember that your security posture is only as strong as your weakest point. Often, this trickles down to how aware and knowledgeable your employees are.
Most Americans are unsure about cybersecurity and how to keep data secure. You want your employees to be surer and more mindful of their actions than the average person. Take the time to train them on the improvement of data security and prevention of data loss.
Teach your employees to understand how certain tasks or actions will affect the security of the company. Teach them also how to keep security issues from occurring. Highlight security breaches and threats, and teach your employees to detect them.
Weak passwords create weak points in your security strategy. Make sure that your passwords are always strong and complex. A strong password contains a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols.
It also helps to avoid using the same passwords on more than one account. Two-factor authentication is also an effective cybersecurity measure to keep your data secure. After the password, it also adds another verification step, like using a one-time password (OTP).
Avoid saving your passwords on passwords managers on browsers. Your browsers can get hacked, and every password saved in there can get accessed by hackers. You should also try to avoid writing down passwords on paper that any person in the building can access or see.
If your employees can’t recall passwords well, use a secure password manager instead. These often come with security programs like anti-malware software. They can keep your employees from writing the passwords down on paper.
Sometimes, it’s not any external force that causes your data loss. Instead, the cause behind it is internal. Your employees might be the ones responsible for security breaches, and you’d never know until it’s too late.
Even if you trust your employees, there may be others who will use the information to access your data. This is why it’s always wise to limit those who have access to vital client and company data. A good solution for this is to practice zero-trust security.
Zero-trust security is one of the top cybersecurity trends for 2021. It’s the maintenance of strict access controls and limiting those who access them. It’s also a matter of keeping certain information under strict control.
Give only the necessary access and information to employees so that they can do their jobs. Use segregation of duties to keep employees from having too much responsibility. Plus, splitting duties also allows the work to get done faster and with more precision.
Those are our top security practices that you should also adopt to keep your company data secure. Good security practices can protect your data, clients, and company from malicious cybercriminals. Adopt these security practices to keep your business safe and secure, as well.
We hope you learned something valuable from this quick guide on how to improve your company’s security. Do you have queries or want to learn more about how we can help your security measures? Feel free to give us a visit by checking out our contact page today.