Cybercrime is a growing threat, but you can keep your business safe. The first step is to get your mindset right. You need to have a security strategy that includes people, processes, and technology, and you need to make sure it’s part of the way you do business every day.
Get a security mindset and make it stick across your organization.
The first step in reducing vulnerability to cybercrime is to make sure that you and your employees have a security mindset. A security mindset is simply the mental framework that people use when they think about information security and privacy. The goal of having a security mindset is not only to understand how important it is to protect data, but also how this affects other aspects of your business or organization.
A strong security culture helps foster a strong security mindset across an entire organization by providing everyone with the knowledge they need to keep up their defenses against cybercriminals. A great way to put these concepts into practice is by taking advantage of training provided by organizations like RSA, which offers free webinars on cybersecurity topics such as secure coding practices and data governance policies designed specifically for small businesses.
Invest in the right people for your defense.
One of the most effective ways to protect your company from cybercrime is by hiring people who are especially suited to this task. The first step in doing so is identifying the skills that you need and then finding someone who has them.
Once you’ve found the right person, it’s important to train them properly. You should provide hands-on experience with real-world scenarios so that they can learn how to respond when faced with a threat or attack. This will help ensure that if your network ever encounters an incident, your employees know how best to handle it (and won’t panic).
Finally, make sure that you have good management practices in place so that everyone knows what their role is within your team—and what their responsibilities are related to cyber security overall.
Implement strong end-user education and training.
In order to protect your company from cybercrime, you need to know that there are ways to stop it before it happens. One of the best things you can do is train your employees on security best practices so they know how to keep themselves and the company safe.
The most effective way of doing this is through end-user education and training. This means teaching them about cybersecurity in general, but also how their role in the organization makes them vulnerable if they don’t take precautions with their personal devices and accounts (and even those of others).
You should also be sure that everyone understands that these steps aren’t optional—they’re required for anyone who works for your business! And once they understand why they need these protocols in place, you should measure effectiveness by seeing what changes have been made since training was introduced.
Be ready to respond to threats.
Cybercrime can be devastating to your business, but it’s important to have a plan in place for responding to the threat. The five basic steps you should take are:
- Identify and classify threats as they arise
- Respond appropriately with appropriate action
- Take a proactive approach to cybersecurity
- Use employee education and awareness training programs to prevent future attacks by educating employees about common tactics used by cybercriminals and how best to avoid them
- Conduct regular risk assessments of your security measures and make changes where needed
Protect all gateways into your network.
Gateways are the first line of defense against cyberattacks, but they’re often overlooked. If you want to keep your company safe from hackers and other intruders, you need to make sure all of your gateways are hardened with security controls and monitored for unusual activity.
The more insecure a network is, the more likely it will be breached by a cybercriminal—and that’s especially true when it comes to gateway devices like routers and firewalls. These devices are often left unprotected by default because they’re not high priority targets on most people’s threat lists; however, this makes them ideal entry points for hackers looking to infiltrate an organization’s main network in search of valuable data or financial assets.
As part of our research into how companies deal with cybercrime risk management (CRM), we found that 98% of organizations surveyed experienced at least one security breach in 2015 alone [1]. In fact almost two-thirds were hit multiple times during the year: one quarter had four or more incidents! We also discovered that nearly half (44%) suffered from multiple breaches within their own networks over just 12 months—but only 7% ever reported these incidents publicly or even internally [2]. Their silence speaks volumes about what happens when companies fail to adequately protect themselves against digital threats: nothing good happens!
You can keep your business safe from cybercrime with a holistic approach that includes people, technology, and processes.
For cyber security to be successful, you must take a holistic approach that includes people, technology, and processes. You need the right people in place with the right mindset and skills to defend your network against threats before they become problems. You also need the right technology deployed at all times so it can detect and respond to threats quickly and efficiently. Finally, your process for responding to security incidents needs to be well-defined so everyone knows who does what during an attack.
