As businesses continue to grow, the number of cyberattacks and successful data breaches has also increased over the years. Studies show that around USD 3.5 billion were the losses incurred due to cybercrimes in 2019, and a total of 467,351 incidents were reported during the year. The attacks are not necessarily targeted at the industry leaders, but also at small companies and start-ups, with 43% of all cyberattacks targeted at small companies. The small companies are usually sitting ducks as they generally do not have robust IT security systems to thwart cyberattacks.
Regardless of your size, all businesses must have a strategy to guard against cyberattacks. As hackers continue their attacks unabated, it is necessary for companies that IT security is among the top concerns of any enterprise. It is best to have proper safeguards in place to and deploy a robust security strategy. Any data breach can lead to loss of customer trust, loss of goodwill, lawsuits, and hefty government agencies’ penalties. In this article, we will discuss a few tips by which you can enhance enterprise-wide security.
Periodic training for employees
Studies show that most data breaches start through a phishing email. With more people working from home, it will not be easy to track everyone. It is necessary to undertake periodic training about such phishing emails. You must inform the employees not to open any unsolicited emails.
You must ensure the employees are trained about the basics of security awareness. It is best if you can start from the essentials and move forward. As newer security features or best practices hit the market, it is necessary to keep your employees informed. Hence, it is essential to have periodic security awareness training sessions for your employees.
Undertake periodic audits
It is necessary to undertake a periodic audit of your systems to understand whether there was any unauthorized access to the system. Audits must be conducted to check the system’s robustness, and you must carry out simulated attacks towards this end. The outcome of this audit must be utilized to address any security-related issues in your networks. It is also necessary to check whether the systems in place are updated. Most software introduces patch upgrades that also involve plugging any security loopholes that may be there in the earlier versions. Your IT team must set up periodic alerts and notifications to ensure all systems are updated to the latest versions.
Use SSL for encryption
Businesses must shift to the HTTPS platform to ensure encryption of all communication between visitors and your web server. It can be done with an SSL certificate that is authenticated and validated by a reputed certificate authority. It acts as a defense against your website being used for nefarious means as no other entity can impersonate your website. The businesses that allow online transactions must adhere to the PCI-DSS norms that require them to have robust IT systems in place. Now, which one to choose for your business. The answer is simple, it depends upon business requirement. For example, if you have several subdomains for each business line, you may choose a cheap Wildcard SSL certificate that will cater to all the sub-domains.
Have robust password policies
It is necessary to have robust password policies as an integral part of your IT policy encompassing the entire company. Cyberattacks also occur due to weak password policies at several organizations. You must ensure that your employees create passwords that adhere to the global password best practices. If there are too many applications that they have to access, it is best to have separate passwords for each of them. If you must remember too many passwords, taking the help of a password manager can also be helpful. It is also necessary to ensure that the passwords are changed regularly, especially after every three months. It is also essential to have robust passwords for your networks too.
Control information transfer
It is critical to ensure that your sensitive data can be accessed only by authorized personnel. If any other person must have access, there must be a hierarchy to approve such requests. With several people bringing their own devices, you must ensure that these devices’ ports always stay locked. Employees are unable to undertake any unauthorized transfer of critical data. It is suggested that you move all vital data to specially protected servers or the cloud, protected by several layers of security. As more employees work from home, you must also ensure that they use a secure VPN to connect to the office networks and that the ports of their devices are blocked as well.
Protect your networks
It is crucial to install applications like antivirus and a firewall that will keep your networks protected from any data breach. A robust antivirus system can protect against any of the latest malware or viruses that any hacker can use against your network. You must keep the antivirus software up to date so that it has a library of all the latest malware and block all such attacks. It is necessary to install CCTV across your organization to monitor any illegal physical access to any secure area in the office. Use of zero trust networks can also minimize the risk of a data breach to a great extent.
Think ahead
You must think ahead and understand the threats that exist for your networks. You must also consider any internal risks and address them positively. The collaborative defense is also currently an essential aspect in the industry. You need to have an alliance with industry organizations and share knowledge about IT security. Threat intelligence can help identify and respond to data breaches’ threats, and you must integrate them into the overall IT strategy.
Conclusion
As the risks of a data breach increase, it becomes necessary to have proper systems to thwart such an attack. We have discussed some tips to enhance enterprise security for your business like you can start by procuring a cheap Wildcard SSL certificate that will help you to secure all your subdomains together. It is critical to have a robust security framework that would encompass all the employees in your organization.
