Understanding these different threats and training your staff to manage them is important for protecting your business.
Major Cybersecurity Threats
Common cyber threats include:
- Ransomware – Where malicious software, usually sent via email, encrypts all the data on the company network, which is then held ransom for providing the decryption key.
- Hack attack – Where a hacker exploits a vulnerability within your network or software, allowing them access to data. These tend to target sensitive customer data such as credit card information or medical records.
- Denial of Service attack – When a large volume of data is pushed to a website’s servers, overwhelming it and shutting their pages down.
- Human error – A large number of data breaches come from information accidentally being lost or distributed to the wrong person.
- Fraud – This often occurs when someone poses as a person within a company and manipulates someone to provide sensitive information or make an unauthorised payment.
Employee cybersecurity training should involve familiarising all staff with the above threats and how to avoid them. This includes being able to recognise suspicious emails and managing sensitive information properly.
Properly Managing Passwords
Despite constant warnings, many businesses are still not serious enough about passwords. Weak passwords are a frequent cause of data breaches. Ensure you have unique passwords for everything and use unorthodox combinations of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols.
You can also add other methods of authentication so you’re not relying on the password alone. There is software that tracks IP addresses used to access files. and notifies you if your files are being accessed from an unfamiliar address. You can also incorporate multi-factor authentication. This often involves receiving a text message with a unique code to type in along with a password.
Encryption
Encryption is the best way to protect your data. It’s a simple process that simply involves creating a password for a file which is then moved to the cloud. You can’t access or see it once it’s there without knowing the password.
There’s a range of ways to zip files and encrypt them with a password, with varying levels of security. The more complex the software, the more secure it generally is. Certain cloud services offer local encryption of your files in addition to storage and backup.
Update Access Permissions
Don’t store confidential data on a server that is easy to access by anyone in the organisation as it makes it an easier target. Businesses should ensure important data (and their backups) can only be accessed by a limited number of people within the organisation who need it.
Managed Cybersecurity Services for Your Business
There are a number of steps businesses can take to reduce cybersecurity threats including working with a managed service provider to implement a managed security service. At ITConnexion, we pride ourselves in offering a range of managed IT solutions. Contact us to organise a consultation with our experts.
