Cyberattacks are a real thing and can affect businesses of all sizes — take action now to prevent future breaches. When you consider that there are over 130 large-scale, targeted breaches in the U.S. per year, it opens your eyes to just how important cybersecurity is.
Cyberattacks can affect any business. It doesn’t matter what the size of the company is or what industry it focuses on — it’s all game for hackers. And when an attack happens, you need to catch it quickly before too much data has been leaked.
We’ve all heard the stories of widespread data breaches. From Marriott to Equifax, the effects of these breaches are felt for years to come by the businesses impacted.
A cyberattack can cause businesses a number of problems, such as:
- Business and customer data breaches
- Ruin relationships with customers
- Put them in legal jeopardy
For many companies, losing customer trust or finding yourself within legal jeopardy could make you shudder your doors.
But likely, you can actively work to prevent cyberattacks before they occur. There are a number of different ways to improve your current cybersecurity measures to protect your business.
From working with a reputable IT firm to keeping your antivirus software up-to-date, you’ll want to put specific measures into place. In this article, we’ll take a look at 4 ways to prepare your business for the event of a cyber attack.
Here’s a quick look at the 4 things we’ll cover:
- Hire an IT firm to help you develop a prevention and monitoring plan
- Educate your employees on cybersecurity threats
- Implement a multi-step verification process
- Make sure your antivirus software is up-to-date
4 Ways to Improve Your Cybersecurity Measures
The needs of every business are different, but there are a few things that anyone can do to improve security measures. We’ll take a look at 4 different ways you can work to improve your current cybersecurity efforts to actively prevent and monitor potential cyberattacks.
Leave your cybersecurity plan up to the progressions. By working with an IT firm to implement your cybersecurity measures will provide you with peace of mind knowing they have the right expertise for the job. Image courtesy of Pexels.
1. Hire an IT Firm to Help You Prevent Attacks
For many companies, creating a cybersecurity prevention plan is just not feasible. Whether it’s because you don’t have the time or skill sets to put a plan in place, it doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared. Or maybe you’re just looking for peace of mind by working with experts in the cybersecurity field.
Whatever the case may be, hiring an IT firm to help you develop a cybersecurity plan can be very beneficial. They take the time to understand your wants, needs, and current security capabilities and develop a plan to keep your data safe.
By thoroughly assessing your business’s unique needs, an IT firm can help you identify cutting-edge solutions to keep your data safe. This can help ease your mind and allow you to keep moving forward with your everyday responsibilities.
Taking time to educate your employees can save you from an accidental cyberattack. If employees don’t know how to prevent and avoid attacks, they may unknowingly let a hacker into your network. Image courtesy of Pexels.
2. Educate Your Employees on Cybersecurity
Did you know that the biggest cybersecurity risk to U.S. businesses is employee negligence?
That’s why one of the most important things you can do to avoid a breach is train your employees on cybersecurity policies and the proper ways to handle sensitive data. In many cases, the employee doesn’t even realize that they’ve put the business at risk.
Here are a few examples of things your employees should be educated on:
- How to create strong passwords that are not easily guessed
- The proper way to disposing of paper or documents that have sensitive data on them
- How to identify potential spam emails that could let a hacker into the network
- Make sure employees know who to contact if they suspect a potential attack
These efforts will allow your employees to know exactly what to do and how to avoid potential cyberattacks. While it’s nearly impossible to take the entire human error element out of the equation, you can continue to educate your team members as a preventative measure.
Creating a multi-step verification process requires employees to use more than one identifier to access sensitive data. This can help protect your network and prevent data breaches before they occur. Image courtesy of Pexels.
3. Implement a Multi-Step Verification Processes
Multi-step verification is one of the most effective ways a company can prevent an unauthorized person from accessing the network.
This process will make it much more difficult for someone outside of the business to gain access to your network or software that houses sensitive data. Multi-step verification is generally used for remote users or users who are accessing privileged data.
Here are a few examples of different verification methods that may be involved in a multi-step process:
- A strong password created by the user
- A personalized identification number or code
- A push notification that is sent to a specified mobile phone number
- A device that generates codes that are needed to connect to the network
No matter the route you choose, a multi-step verification process will require your employees to use two or more of these methods to access company data. This is another great way to help ensure your data stays safe and out of the hands of a hacker.
Cybersecurity Prevention Will Protect You From a Potential Data Breach
When it comes to your business’s cybersecurity efforts, it’s better to put your effort into preventing a potential attack than having to respond to a breach. There are many things you can do to help protect your sensitive data — and they don’t have to be extremely costly or time-consuming.
From ensuring your employees have the proper training to working with an IT firm that can put your mind at ease, there are many options to ensuring your sensitive data stays private. Without preventative measures, you’re leaving your business at risk.
