These days, it might feel as if having adequate cybersecurity is becoming a bit like shooting at a moving target, and in a sense, you’d be quite right in thinking so. After all, once cybersecurity measures prevent cybercriminals from using one avenue to get at your valuable data, they immediately start probing for another way in.
While your business may not seem like a powerful or large enough target to warrant attention, you can be reasonably sure that any vulnerabilities you leave unaddressed will be exploited sooner or later. And if your customers’ data forms part of the breach, a lack of due diligence in protecting it could leave your business liable for damages.
While this all sounds rather daunting, implementing adequate cybersecurity measures should be enough to prevent the worst from happening. Follow these steps with the help of cybersecurity experts to identify digital vulnerabilities and keep your business safe.
1. Assess the Risks
Identifying and assessing risks is the first step towards addressing them. Since digital vulnerabilities could be present in places ordinary people wouldn’t suspect, get help in finding out where the possible gaps in your armor are. With multiple devices used across different locations, and even the ways in which you use the cloud having potentially hidden risks, get expert help. Your risk assessment should include a number of things you can do to prevent your business becoming a target for cybercrime, and implementing its recommendations should be a high priority.
2. Train Your Employees
With your systems better protected, you still need to account for the human element by providing training. Trying to do something the “easy way” or simply being ignorant of the security protocols they should be following could place your business at risk. Don’t assume that any part of your cybersecurity policy is common knowledge. It could be a fatal error. However, with employees understanding what they should and shouldn’t do, and why they’re being instructed to follow security protocols, you stand a better chance of gaining their full support and compliance.
3. Use Traffic Filtering and Scanning
Being able to identify and respond quickly to threats to your cybersecurity means implementing traffic filtering and scanning. In essence, it gives you better visibility of traffic within your network allowing for the diversion of certain types of traffic to appropriate security monitoring tools. It will make your network more efficient, preventing bottlenecks, but it will also help you with threat identification.
4. Always Keep Your Software Updated
Your software vendors should be working hard to keep their software protected from cybercriminals – after all, like you, their reputations and livelihoods are at stake. When they identify weak points, they’ll develop a “patch” to address it. Checking for patches and ensuring that they’re installed as soon as possible should be part of your business’s day-to-day security routine.
5. Review Risks and Refresh Staff Training Periodically
Times keep changing, and so do the cybersecurity risks your business faces. Depending on which experts you talk to, your cybersecurity risk assessment should be renewed every 6 months to 2 years. However, awareness should be ongoing. If you’re planning on making any major changes to your IT infrastructure, are moving more processes to the cloud, or are using new devices to help you do business, the ways in which these changes might affect cybersecurity should be examined carefully.