7 Steps to Protect Your Business from a Cyber Attack
The landscape is ever-changing when it comes to Cyber Security. Recent developments in Russia have resulted in the Federal Government issuing warnings to businesses in the U.S. to take every precaution to protect their critical data as the risk of cyber attacks from abroad continues to rise.
Approximately 3.8 million records have been stolen from breaches every day since 2013. Cyber Crime is one of the fastest-growing types of crime and is projected to cost individuals and businesses $6 trillion by 2021, more than all illegal drug sales combined. (Cybersecurity Ventures, 2018)
The following steps can help protect your business
- Identify sensitive data – To protect sensitive data, companies must identify what is sensitive data and categorize them into various sensitivity levels such as confidential, secret, top-secret, etc. Once all data types have been identified and categorized, appropriate security protocols can be determined for protecting each type of data.
- Implement Security Protocols for Data Protection – Think in layers. It may be acceptable to store some data in a locked file cabinet, whereas other data such as a server room will require passing through multiple security checkpoints and locked doors to access.
- Educate your employees – Social Engineering and Phishing Emails represent one of the greatest threats to businesses today. Companies that institute training programs and Cyber Security Awareness campaigns will be less susceptible to these common attacks.
- Test your defenses – Many security firms are now working with private companies to test the integrity of their security program. It is better to identify vulnerabilities through penetration testing than from an actual threat.
- Repeat the process – Cyber Criminals are developing new methods of attack every day, with that companies will need to continuously re-evaluate their security defenses through identifying risks, vulnerabilities, and potential methods of mitigation.
- Insurance – Insurance to protect companies from various cyber-attacks is now widely available.
- Consult a Professional – Consult with Credentialed Security Professionals who are certified to evaluate your company’s security posture and recommend best practices to defend against today’s most prevalent threats.
Written by Derek Loomis, CPP, PCI, PSP
Source Cited:
John P. Mellow, Jr. 2018 https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybercrime-diary-whos-hacked-list-of-q3-2018-data-breaches-and-cyberattacks/ Accessed: 02/06/2020
