If you’ve ever been the victim of a cyber attack, then you already know how difficult life becomes for you and your business. One of the most important ways to recover and move forward is to reduce the risk of it happening again.
Leave alone a cyber attack, imagine your system crashing. When cyber-attacks happen you lose precious data and time to get back to normalcy. Here are 13 ways to protect your business from becoming a cyber-attack victim.
1) Be More Cautious
In the wake of recent ransomware attack, we can see how a business and its customers can suffer when an innocent click on link can do. Create awareness among your employees and others in your business to be more cautious about the links they click and things they download. Also monitor the connected devices on your network for any potential unknown devices.
2) Create a Cyber-Attack Action Plan
The worst part of cyber-attack isn’t even the attack. The true damage occurs due to business down time, which can last for days, halting business operations, employee productivity and jeopardizing sales. Each new cyber attack serves as a stark reminder that prevention, containment and business continuity techniques are crucial to keeping companies up and running.
There is nothing worse than feeling unprepared for cyber-attacks when they occur. Proactively put an action plan in place for what to do when a cyber-attack takes place. Develop a strategy and protocols to follow to act swiftly to mitigate a cyber-attack.
3) Use Malicious Website Blockers
Stopping the malicious websites can be another way to prevent bad websites downloading files or running malicious code on your computer. There are plenty of malware blockers available as extensions for your web browsers or network. It is best to take precautions and protect a business from a cyber attack now rather than later.
4) Practice Strong Password Policy
Many businesses already understand the importance of using strong passwords for their email and social media accounts, however they may use very weak passwords at work that are easier for them to remember. It’s worse when companies still have a default password in use on any devices, as this makes even easier for the hackers to gain unauthorized connections during a cyber attack. Ensure that passwords contain a minimum of 8 alpha-numeric characters and ensure that they are changed regularly.
5) Email Attachment Caution
Only open an email attachment if you know who it’s from and you know what it is. Sophisticated cyber attacks can now send email to you from a trusted contact with malicious attachments inside. If you don’t know what something is be sure to email your contact and ask before opening it.
6) Put Up a Strong Firewall
In order to have a properly protected network firewalls are a must. A firewall protects your network by controlling internet traffic coming into and flowing out of your business. Firewall acts as a defense system to protect from cyber-attacks buying you some time to take the necessary counter action. Having a good firewall is an investment and not an expense in today technology landscape.
7) Install Antivirus and Anti-Malware Protection
Antivirus and anti-malware software are essentials in your arsenal of online security. They’re the last line of defense should an unwanted attack get through to your network. Though todays hackers and viruses are more sophisticated for them, antivirus and antimalware software’s act as the last man standing. Scans can block viruses from being downloaded, and prevent malware from being installed.
8) Backup Regularly
Backup the most important data you own regularly. Store the files on a separate computer or on the cloud. The best options are an external hard drive that you update regularly and is not connected to the internet. Using a cloud service may not be the best for privacy but it stands a better chance against cyber attacks as they are constantly monitored by a dedicated team.
9) Keep Updating
Keeping your software’s and networks updated with the necessary security updates will prevent your business from a large known cyber-attack vulnerabilities. Software’s release updates and patches for the known issues and vulnerabilities in their systems. Updating your software and systems in the network will keep your business protected from most cyber-attacks.
10) Hire an Ethical Hacker
An ethical hacker will simply do their job to try to defeat your defenses and then share the knowledge of how they did it; offering suggestions to prevent cyber-attacks in the future. Hire an ethical hacker to know the vulnerabilities in your network and take the necessary action against them. If you are undergoing or preparing for a cyber attack, an ethical hacker will be a valuable addition to your team.
11) Conduct Cyber Security Drills
Educating your employees about the potential cyber attacks and the ways to protect against them is the best step a business can take. By conducting these cyber security drills, employees will be aware of the potential pitfalls and follow the necessary steps to prevent an attack and also learn how to react when a cyber-attack takes place.
12) Train Against Social Engineering Attacks
Social Engineering is the most common way a business falls for a cyber attack. Social engineering is a way in which the attackers use deception or/and authority to get necessary details through contacting individuals in the company demanding information. Creating a strong education programs to train employees to spot suspicious activity asking for details should be reported and acted against to protect the data from falling into the wrong hands.
13) Use an Air Gaped Computer
Air gaped computer s nothing but computers unplugged (air-gap) from any kind of network infrastructure, especially the internet. Military/governmental computer networks, Financial computer systems, such as stock exchanges use this technique for protecting against cyber attacks.
In general, air gaped computers are devices separated away from mediums like acoustic, light, seismic, magnetic, thermal, radio-frequency and other physical media. These air gaped computers usually contain highly valuable data for backup or confidentiality reasons which can also protect against cyber-attacks.
Do you know any other ways how to protect your business from becoming a cyber attack victim? Share them on Trdinoo for others to learn and please share us with friends and people you know.
