If this year weren’t already difficult enough, what with the pandemic and the resultant economic downturn, this is also a year during which we’re seeing an unprecedented number of cybersecurity attacks on firms across the US. With more and more large companies falling foul of trojan horses, malware, ransomware and back-door hacks, this is the time to invest properly in your company’s cybersecurity. Not only can a breach or a hack be incredibly costly – it’ll cost you in PR terms, too. So here’s how you can boost your cybersecurity this winter and into 2021.
Consultants
There are now so many threats in the world of cybercrime that it can be difficult to pin them down as a business that doesn’t necessarily work in the digital sphere. Small businesses without access to IT specialists in their own teams are particularly vulnerable to hacks that they simply have not heard of or anticipated. As such, looking to the advice of consultants comes highly recommended for firms that are looking to protect themselves fully this winter.
Bring in a cybersecurity professional to look at your digital systems, and recommend how you can bring greater security to your data and your tech stack. These consultants have the knowledge to point out what, to them, will be glaring inadequacies in your digital infrastructure – but, to you, these will have been invisible.
Staff Training
Another way in which you can boost your cybersecurity across your business is through training up your staff. Unfortunately, one of the main weak points in a business’ infrastructure is their workforce – many of whom are older and a little less digitally literate than the young people entering the job market today. They might not know what phishing is, or when an email might contain malware or ransomware.
Training these staff members in the basics of cybersecurity will help to protect your whole firm from breaches and hacks in the future. These training sessions can be delivered online, using third party educators who will help you to get through to your staff. Alternatively, ask your IT team to help you build up learning resources for your staff to read in their own time. Use a test, if required, to make sure your staff have learned the key components of cybersecurity.
Spot Vulnerabilities
Your staff members are far from the only cybersecurity vulnerabilities in your firm, though. In fact, there will be several weaknesses that cybercriminals will look to exploit in your back end – and they’re difficult to spot and patch up without outsourced help. Here, you’re looking for experts in vulnerability management – specialists in finding the backdoors that hackers might use to attack your firm, who’ll then show you how to patch it up. These might include a poor encryption system used on your messaging within your business or low-quality password protection, leaving your log-in details at risk. Other companies might fail to install inadequate cloud security, which means less protection for some of the cloud-based files that your firm regularly access and uses.
Cybersecurity provisions and software solutions that have not been updated also put your firm in a prime position to become a target for developing cyber threats. Why? When there is a sub-standard data security system running through your firm, this will lead to leaks, breaches, hacks, and other data mismanagement.
Your cybersecurity is famously only as strong as the weakest link in the chain, and getting your chain risk assessed is a valuable protective measure for your business this winter. So don’t let so-called ‘backdoor’ gaps in your security infrastructure that only firms that know how hackers think will be able to spot and spot these vulnerabilities in advance.
Software
It goes without saying that you should be using cybersecurity software across your firm – and across all devices that are logging onto your business servers. This includes employee devices, especially those that are being used more as workers increasingly perform their work from home in 2020 and beyond. You’re looking for well-reviewed cybersecurity products that promise to protect not only physical servers, but data stored on the cloud, too.
Read reviews and articles online in order to check up on the reputation of the major cybersecurity software suppliers before you subscribe to one in particular – and make sure that, whoever you go with, you’re covered on the cloud, too. This new element to your digital infrastructure may not be properly covered within your existing security software.
Cybersecurity is a huge risk to businesses in 2020 – and will be one of the biggest business challenges of this decade. Use these tips to do what you can to protect yourself and your firm this winter.