Cybersecurity breaches have risen and are expected to reach 15.4 million by 2023. While technological advances have made it easier for companies to upgrade their security measures, malicious hackers now use sophisticated tools. That means that in addition to implementing strict cybersecurity policies, you should proactively reduce your cybersecurity risks.
As an organization, you cannot leave your data security at risk. The business impact can be huge; it can lead to loss of revenue, operational disruption, and theft of customer data. A data breach also causes reputational damage, which, in some cases, can put you out of business. So, how can you reduce your organization’s cybersecurity risk with everything at risk? Here are nine practical IT solutions in Toronto you should implement.
Keep your system and software up to date.
Software and system updates significantly impact your cybersecurity and digital security. Indeed, they add new features, fix bugs, and help with security flaws and vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Hackers write code that they use to exploit the vulnerability. Mostly, this code is in the form of malware that can affect your entire system. So use an IT security solutions system to manage all updates and maintain information security automatically.
Use strong passwords
Password cracking technology has come a long way, and simple passwords are no longer enough. Instead, you should use complex passwords and implement multi-factor authentication strategies to prevent cybercrime in your organization. You should also not encourage password sharing among employees so that even if one workstation is hacked, the others are safe.
Encrypt your data and create backups.
Make sure all your personal data is encrypted. Saving your data in a regular text format makes it easier for hackers to access it. Data encryption, on the other hand, restricts data access to the parties who own the encryption key. It also ensures that even if an unauthorized third party gains access to the data, it cannot be read by them. Some IT security solutions even inform you when others try to change or tamper with the information.
Reduce your attack surface.
Your attack surface is vulnerabilities or entry points that hackers can use to access sensitive data. It can be anything like IT, software, or web application systems, and employees are often vulnerable to social engineering attacks like whaling and phishing.
Pay special attention to physical security.
Most organizations’ cyber risk management policies focus on the digital side of cyber risk and completely ignore their physical facilities. Perform security assessments and determine if the critical infrastructure is safe from security breaches. You should also analyze the data protection policy and decide if it includes data handling strategies.
Imagine a scenario where your online systems are safe from cybercriminals, but you are compromised because someone broke into your office and ransacked your file cabinet. It would be a tragedy! In other cases, janitors walk through trash cans and get personal information about customers and employees.
Put a Killswitch in Place
There is a killswitch that protects you from large-scale attacks. This is a reactive cyber defense strategy in which your IT department shuts down all systems as soon as it detects anything suspicious until the problem is resolved.
Cybercriminals usually don’t cover their tracks, especially when they don’t want to be caught. So ask the IT security solutions team to regularly analyze all server logs and perform cybersecurity framework audits to ensure their integrity.
Firewall settings
Cyber threats are becoming more worldly every day, and hackers come up with new ways to access data every day. Therefore, you should protect your network against cyber attacks by installing a firewall. A reliable system will protect you from brute-force attacks or prevent security issues from causing irreparable damage.
Additionally, the firewall monitors your network traffic to identify any activity that could compromise the integrity of your data. They also prevent sophisticated spyware from accessing your system and promote data privacy.
Create a Safe Cybersecurity Policy
Your organization’s cybersecurity is heavily influenced by the policies you adopt. Do you have guidelines for preventing and detecting data breaches? How often does your IT security solutions team perform risk assessments or penetration testing? It all starts with your guide!
How Security Scorecard helps you reduce cybersecurity risks
Mitigating cybersecurity risks is never-ending as new threat actors enter the field quickly. Organizations must deploy proactive cybersecurity monitoring to protect today’s dynamic environment to ensure threats are identified and remedied as quickly as possible.
Conclusion
It cannot be easy to know where to start when protecting your business against cybercriminals and cyberattacks. So much information is available that it can become overwhelming, especially when the information is in conflict.