7 Best Practices for Cybersecurity
IT security is crucial for every organization. It is also a very broad and difficult discipline to master. With almost all systems facing the Internet and infrastructures becoming more complicated and larger, security has become a serious challenge for any organization. Absolute security may be not feasible, but a number of relatively simple measures can vastly improve the level of protection for your business.
1) Know Your Most Important Systems and Processes
The organization needs to know the exact makeup of their IT infrastructure. That may seem obvious, but the complexities of modern IT usually result in a loss of overview and control. It is the only way to determine what resources are vital for business continuity. One possible distinction that should be made is between ‘hard’ resources, such as servers, clients and networks, and ‘soft’ resources: software, data, but also intellectual property and knowledge. Resources that turn out to be core to the business should be prioritized.
2) Study the Threat Landscape
Businesses that are not storing personal data are less prone to data leaks. They may, however, work with important documents that make them more vulnerable for ransomware: malware that encrypts data and offers the key in exchange for a hefty sum. And e-retailers are very sensitive to DDoS-attacks. Knowing of the threats that may affect your business is crucial to your security efforts.
3) Assess Potential Damages
Incidents can cause all sorts of damages. These include damage to your reputation and fines from the authorities for not following data protection rules, as well as direct financial damage caused by theft and repair costs. The more damage an incident can potentially cause to a system or process, the more priority should be given to mitigate it.
4) Determine the actual risk
The potential damage incidents can cause do not tell the whole story, however. The probability of attacks also plays a very important role in determining risk. For example, if all data is exclusively stored on desktop computers on your premises, there is little risk of them being left behind at bus stops by accident. The probability of data leaks is much lower than when staff copy the data to USB drives to take it with them.
5) Don’t Overdo It with the Budget
Budgeting security is far from trivial. By failing to set priorities, businesses risk that important parts of the IT infrastructure are insufficiently secure. At the same time, it is all too likely that the organization spends money on a solution that turned out to be redundant. This potentially endangers the willingness to invest in future important measures when new threats appear. A well-balanced budget not only helps your security in the present but in the future as well.
6) Keep on Testing
Buying and implementing solutions is relatively easy. In theory that is, because the real world is much less consistent. To ensure security effectiveness, it is crucial to adequately test any new security solutions together with your most important applications. Especially when the infrastructure changes, with new servers or software.
7) Increase Awareness
Even the best-secured environment is vulnerable if staff keep clicking on links in e-mails they should not click on. The vast majority of incidents are caused by human error. For that reason, it is absolutely vital to make them aware of the risks and teach them how to handle IT responsibly.
DigiState Can Assist You
No business has to tackle security challenges all by themselves. DigiState offers services in different security domains: E-mail Security, Endpoint Security, File Security, our Security Service MKB, SSL Certificates and the Website & Security Scan.