In today’s business IT environment, it’s harder than ever to maintain cyber security and avoid cyber security threats. In this overview, Vana will look at a few solutions that can help you lock down your data.
What Is Cyber Security and Why Does It Matter?
Cyber security is the process of securing, updating, and monitoring your technological systems in order to prevent unauthorized access, data loss, and attacks by malware, viruses and other such threats to your company.
In today’s business world, cyber security is more important than ever. In the first half of 2019, more than 4.1 billion records were lost to hackers and malicious actors and the average cost of a data breach in the US has reached $150 per lost record.
To protect your business from data loss, unauthorized access, data breaches, and other such threats, you need to implement a cyber security program and use the latest tools and technology to lock down your data.
What Are the Most Common Types of Cyber Threats?
Wondering what types of threats are common in today’s business world? Here’s a look at a few cyber threats that are often used to breach a business’ IT infrastructure.
- Phishing – Phishing uses spoofed emails to trick recipients into sending confidential information, or to download malware or a trojan to provide access to your company’s IT systems.
- Malware – Malware is a program that is designed to perform some kind of malicious task on your system, such as corrupting your data or deleting files. There are many different types of malware.
- Ransomware – This subtype of malware encrypts your files and data and holds them for ransom unless you pay to have your files unlocked.
- Trojans – Named for the Trojan Horse, trojans are a type of malware designed to look like one thing (a downloadable piece of software, for example) but to infect your system once they have been downloaded.
- Data breaches – Data breaches can be done with malware, trojans or phishing, or by exploiting known code or platform vulnerabilities in your IT systems.
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack – A DDoS attack uses a large number of hacked computers to overload your website’s server or another target system, overwhelming it and causing it to crash due to high demand.
So, how can you protect yourself from these common threats? Take a look at the following tips, and make sure you lock down your data and maintain cyber security.
Invest in Remediating Vulnerabilities to Protect Your Data
First and foremost, you’ll need to remediate and fix vulnerabilities in your cloud and on-premises systems.
- Use secure cloud architecture – Work with flexible, cloud-based architecture that delivers fast performance as well as scalable security protection.
- Understand 5G and IoT exposure – If you are using IoT (Internet of Things) and 5G devices, make sure you know how they can cause vulnerabilities to your organization and take steps to lock them down.
- Use AI to defend against threats – Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play a role in defense of threats, particularly with a preventative approach to cybersecurity.
- Create a cybersecurity assessment – Assess your current risks and defenses, and work toward developing a cybersecurity maturity model.
- Follow data protection & privacy regulations – Make sure to understand modern data protection and privacy regulations like GDPR, and identify how your data needs to be secured, accessed, stored and used.
Prevent Cyber Attacks with These Steps
In addition to remediating vulnerabilities, you should take steps to prevent cyber-attacks. Here are a few steps you can take.
- Training – Training employees on cybersecurity principles, phishing avoidance and other subjects is your first line of defense against malware and cyber-attacks.
- Antivirus and antispyware – This software can prevent the installation of malware and scan your computers to check for viruses and spyware to ensure your computers are free of any potential issues.
- Firewalls – You should have a firewall on your internet connection to monitor traffic between internal and external networks and prevent unauthorized connections.
- Update software & operating systems – Update all software and operating systems regularly to patch common vulnerabilities and reduce risk.
- Secure Wi-Fi networks – Make sure that your Wi-Fi networks are secured, encrypted and accessible only to employees.
- Use access control principles – Require individual user accounts for each employee, and follow POLP (Principle of Least Privilege) to limit their access to sensitive data.
- Require frequent password changes – You should require password changes every 1-3 months for enhanced security.
Lock Down Your Data with These Steps
Even in today’s cloud-focused IT model, there are plenty of steps you can take to lock down and secure your data. Follow these tips now, and make sure you’re safe from cyber-attacks and data loss. Contact Vana to discuss your potential vulnerabilities and how to protect your organization.
