A humongous part of our lives now revolve around internet. From private organizations to Government, everyone is using the internet for different schemes and purposes. So, it is not difficult to understand the importance of cyber security in our present situation. In recent times, we have seen some of the huge scams and security breaches that have jeopardized the integrity of people, their privacy and so on. Such mishaps have been an eye opener for everyone. Cyber security has thus gained a permanent position in the daily life.
No matter, if your company is a very small one, you must ensure that your company website or any online activities are safe and integrated. If you are thinking that hackers will have no benefit in attacking your small company website, then you are wrong. Statistics have shown that cyber criminals find softer targets in smaller companies because most of them has poor security. So, every business organization should take proactive measures to protect its network and devices. Let me tell you a shocking news. The United States Cyber Security Alliance has found that 60% of small companies are unable to carry on their business over six months, after they faced cyber attacks. According to Ponemon Institute, the average price for small businesses to regain their losses after a cyber attack have been around $690,000 and, for middle market companies, the value is over $1 million.
Every company needs to be vigilant and aware. There are certain security measures that are mandatory for your company.
- Enforce awareness of Passwords and password change: Most of the times, we employees tend to have a casual approach towards passwords. They either set their birth date or pet’s name. So like any other big company, you must enforce certain rules of setting passwords like number of characters, alphaneumeric combinations, special symbols. It should be ensured that these passwords are updated periodically. To do that, every employee must get a reminder to change the password in order to save from account lapse.
- Invest in cybersecurity training and education for your company employees: There are several technical aspects that need to be addressed in this regard. Employees should be alerted about URLs and which URLs and links are maliceous. Your organization should have a business class network security appliance (NSA) in place. There is no security system that is 100% safe. A strong cyber criminal can penetrate a secured system with the slightest loophole. An NSA or firewall acts like a royal guard at the gate of your network that scans all incoming and outgoing data. If you want to impart cyber security awareness and training sessions among your company employees, read more.
- Multiple layers of protection, web filtering and Antivirus: The function of an antivirus is not unknown. To maximise the effect of security, multiple layers of encryption should be enforced. Other than this, several security features are required such as a strong web filtering technology to block unwanted links, two factor authentication, password complexity anf rotation policy for establishing a standard for creation of strong passwords.
- Strong backup: Backup is of prime importance in any organization. If your company has a strong backup, then it is possible to comepensate the loss even after a cyber attack. Most of the times ransomware attacks take away the access from your machine. If your backup is there, then fighting such menace becomes easier.
- Implement VPNs for all connections: Networks that are protected by generic security measures are susceptible to cyber attacks. Always use VPN connections among your company and clients.
- Leave out obsolete devices and software: No device or software is permanent. They tend to become obsolete after certain point of time. Retire all such software applications and devices no matter how expensive they are. Once, these are obsolete, their registered companies stop providing updates. In that case, using such software or device is dangerous.
- Enhance existing security Facility: Keep the overall security of your comoany network updated. The updates should be done frequently. You have to keep in mind that the smallest bug or security flaw can ruin your organization. So be proactive and be ready with fixers and patches. For that you need a strong team of IT professionals who deal with these issues.
That’s all folks. Hope this article has helped you!
