Cyberattacks are No Joke… Here’s How to Protect Your Business

If you read our blog regularly, you probably saw the post we shared the other day talking about the various cybersecurity issues that your business could very well be damaged by without the right precautions. We wanted to build on that conversation, so what follows are the measures to help you take these precautions.

What Security Measures Should All Businesses Use to Protect Their Data?

Before Anything Else, You Need a Plan

Without a strategy in place to guide your business’ defensive measures, your security simply won’t be as capable as it needs to be. A comprehensive risk analysis will tell you where you are potentially vulnerable, enabling you to make your risk management strategy more effective.

Within this strategy, you should have all required procedures and policies, along with training to ensure your team can abide by these requirements appropriately. This includes baseline requirements for all of your business associates and vendors to uphold, to help minimize the risk of an issue coming from these sources.

Your Equipment Needs to Remain Secure

A business’ infrastructure is the nervous system of the business, which makes it essential that it is properly secured and protected, beginning with each workstation’s and device’s operating system. You also need to maintain your updates and patches, as well as your antivirus, to ensure that the security your business relies on remains reliable.

It also pays to implement encryption at the hardware level, as it helps to prevent a data breach even if the devices are stolen.  

Your Online Security Needs to Be Locked Tight

As wonderful of a resource the Internet can be, it can also serve as an effective means of spreading threats. This means you need to put similar policies and protections in place to protect your business. Emails should be encrypted and protected with anti-malware, just like your network’s data. If you’re implementing remote work to any degree, your team needs the secure means to easily access the resources they’ll need to work. With the right security, this can be accomplished with either on-premises storage in your business, or cloud storage.

You Need Network Protections, as Well

If your network security is lacking, your business is in imminent danger, so you need to put numerous policies in place concerning these shortcomings as well. Password policies and access control policies and Wi-Fi access policies are all examples of such, and need your attention if they are to be designed and enforced properly. Every device that connects to your network needs to abide by these policies, which monitoring can help ensure.

Backups are Needed By All Businesses

Finally—and we’ve saved one of the best for last—your business’ continuity strategy relies on you having a comprehensive and up-to-date backup, just as a safeguard against the chance that an attack slips past. We always recommend an approach known as the 3-2-1 Backup Rule: you maintain at least three copies of your data, saved in at least two locations, at least one being cloud-based. These kinds of protections can be the difference between your business’ survival, or the much-less-preferable alternative.

We Can Help!

Admittedly, this is a lot to deal with on top of your business’ typical operations…why not let some experts step in to take care of things for you? Reach out to us to learn more about our comprehensive IT services (including cybersecurity) by calling (403) 210-2927.