Many businesses employ technology for varying reasons – reducing labor costs, saving time, providing better services to their clients by using different types of software. And with technology evolving every second, there also comes the exponential increase of cyber-attacks.
Therefore, it’s vital to put in place solid and reliable measures designed to curb threats targeting your businesses’ data, devices, management systems, networks, and applications.
6 Cyber Security Measures to Consider
Below are some reliable measures you can implement to prevent your business from featuring in cyber-attacks statistics:
1. Investing in staff training
Staff training is arguably the most crucial step towards achieving cybersecurity. Every employee, including new admissions in your organization, should undergo basic cyber security training to identify these risks and understand their implications.
After training, your employees should easily detect common cyber security threats, e.g., email phishing and other social engineering attacks. Consider conducting cybersecurity awareness training at least twice or thrice in a financial year.
See that the curriculum used entails the latest types of cyber-attacks and other recent threats your business may have encountered.
2. Creating cyber security policies
Cybersecurity policies are essential guides for your employees to follow in the event of a cyber-attack. They also include social media and authentication best practices, password requirements, and BYOD policy.
The rules and instructions must be clear, concise, and easily accessible to your employee for future reference. Also, the policy should provide an elaborate communication channel that your staff can adhere to whenever a security breach arises.
3. Conducting regular software updates
Regularly updating your software will prove a helpful trick to make your business’ computer systems impassable for cybercriminals. That’s because outdated software is prone to receiving drive-by downloads – a gateway cybercriminals can exploit to gain access to your business’ networked systems and applications.
Cybercriminals may also take advantage of other software vulnerabilities to perform malicious activities. As such, you’ll need to eliminate bugs and other vulnerabilities, which you can achieve by conducting regular software updates. While that will beef up your business’s cyber security, you’ll get to enhance your user experience and functionality.
4. Conducting vulnerability scanning and penetration testing
Vulnerability scanning employs software designed to conduct thorough checks on your businesses’ IT infrastructure. On the other hand, penetration testing is a manual process performed by ethical hackers to conduct comprehensive security checks.
Unlike cybercriminals, ethical hackers use a completely different approach, mimicking a cyberattack simulation. That way, they identify any vulnerabilities and offer tailored advice on how to improve your business’s cybersecurity scorecard.
5. Employing a multilayered protection approach
Over-reliance on one protection approach provides a false sense of security and may eventually prove risky to your organization’s cybersecurity. Instead, consider employing a multilayered protection approach that entails using a virtual private network (VPN), multi-factor authentication methods, firewall, anti-malware, and more for maximum security.
Also, regularly monitoring your employees to ensure they adhere to the cybersecurity policies is a clever tactic to always have everyone on their toes.
6. Automating data backups
You might also want to conduct frequent data backups. You get to be one step ahead while providing security for sensitive data and cushioning in an abrupt cyber-attack-related data loss. It is also advisable to store backed-up data copies offline.
Key Takeaway
All the above tips and tricks are only a glimpse of what you can do to enhance your cybersecurity. But one way to always be one step ahead of cybercriminals is keeping tabs on the latest cybersecurity threats.
Surprisingly, all six measures are instrumental in protecting your business from email phishing, which has grown pretty rampant over time. These attacks come as innocent emails or text messages designed to phish unsuspecting people’s personal information.
Now that you are well-equipped with tips and tricks to tackle cybersecurity concerns, it’s now time to update your bookkeeping and accounting records. At J. Zollo & Associates, we boast a team of professional consultants who diligently offer tailored bookkeeping services. So, contact us today for CPA support, personal and business bookkeeping lessons, and assistance.