How to help reduce the threat of a successful cyber-attack

As a business owner, being conscientious about the danger of a cyberattack is important to how you invest in and run any of the systems within your business.

It is critical that you are aware of the risks you make with every purchase. However, these risks are not always clear and are not always marketed with the products you are buying.

This means that you need to use your common sense and think in granular detail about what you are buying and what effects that has on a company-wide scale.

You should also be aware of the services and systems in place out there that can help you when it comes to decreasing these risks.

This can help you to create a healthier business and one that is more likely to have a long-term future.

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Know the threats

It will surprise nobody that there are a huge number of threats out there. Knowing them, and knowing how to avoid them, can be a good way to build a more secure business from day one. 

It would help if you were making sure that you know about social engineering in its many guises and that you have systems in place to stop any of them from being effective.

You should be aware of the day-to-day risks that your business faces and that a cyber-attack could happen every day to anyone. 

In addition to this, you should also be resigned to the fact that not all cyber-attacks can be blocked or defended against. Sometimes, you need to just make sure you can deal with the fallout. 

Your preparedness can save you a lot of time, and making those key investments can save your business and your reputation as a business owner.

People are less likely to invest in your future startups if you have refused to keep promises regarding data safety in the past, and those affected will remember. 

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#1 IoT Security

When it comes to digitalisation within your business, you might feel that it is all perks. People can work hybrid, everything is on the Cloud, collaboration is better, and your amount of waste is reduced.

However, it is unfortunately not all peaches and roses. You will find that by digitising your business, with every tablet and computer, you are introducing more and more risks of a cyber attack to your business.

This is because the devices that you are bringing into your business might not be made for business levels of security.

You will probably need to integrate external security measures to build a more secure business. IoT Security can be a good way to help you think more about the risks incumbent when you also bring machinery and people into the equation and learn how to defend and work around them.

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#2 End-user education and training

It is also important to keep your employees well informed of cyber threats and the policies that you have in place to stop attacks from happening. If your employees are more aware, they are more likely not to take risks due to knowing what might happen if they do or don’t do a certain thing. This can be essential to keeping your business safe. 

It is important to ensure they know the importance of MFA, using secure passwords, and keeping an eye on how much data they are letting slip outside of the business.

It can help them protect themselves and the business, and it can also help them know what to do in the event of a potential breach or if they think that another employee is up to no good or negligent. 

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#3 The power of communication

You should never underestimate the power of communication when it comes to helping your business remain secure. Communication can be a key player in making sure that your employees don’t make silly mistakes and help you to keep secure. For example, suppose an employee sends a link to another employee.

In that case, it is important that the recipient employee messages the sender employee via a different communication software, such as teams if the link was sent via email. This can help reduce the amount of successful social engineering attacks and adds another layer of security to your business.

You should also make sure that you are encouraging employees to report suspicious behaviour or if they have made a mistake and clicked on a dangerous link.

You should make sure that your employees feel comfortable coming to figures of authority or your authorised contact to your IT Department about these issues as soon as they happen. Employees should then be refreshed on end-user education while the potential breach is being looked into by a professional to minimise damage. 

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What to do in the event of an attack

In the event of an attack, it is crucial that you get your IT Department on it as a first priority case. You should make sure that you have several systems in place, such as disaster recovery planning and accurate permissions given to accounts.

This can be a good way to help stop an attack or at least get it to slow down. You should ensure that all passwords are changed and the email containing the link is deleted from any mailboxes so it doesn’t have the potential to happen again.

If it was quite obviously an accident that an employee clicked on a link, you need to make sure that you understand that accidents happen.

You might want to go over certain security points with them anyway. However, if it was done out of gross negligence or maliciousness, you should take note and have internal discussions about the employee and if you should keep them on your payroll.

The key to overcoming an attack is good internal communication, trust, pre-emptive thinking, and a calm outlook. Once an attack is in motion, it is out of your hands and becomes the responsibility of the IT Department. Knowing and understanding that you have no control over the situation might help you to think rationally and keep on pushing forward.