Cybercriminals are out to get your business, and they're doing it in a big way. It's no secret that though cybercriminals often target large businesses, smaller organizations are also attractive to them. The logic is simple: small businesses usually follow a standard "not much to steal" mindset using fewer controls and easy-to-breach data protection strategies.
Here are the seven best practices every small business should implement immediately to protect their organization from cyberattacks and keep their data safe from thieves and hackers. To know about it visit: https://bit.ly/3G96FDr
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024
7 Practices To Safeguard Your Business From Security Breaches!
1. 7 Practices To Safeguard Your
Business From Security Breaches!
Introduction:
The digital world is increasingly interconnected, and the threats to your business's data are
increasing. You must remain vigilant and ensure that your company's data is secure. Limiting
data security best practices to the organization's size has never worked and will not work in
the future.
To begin with, you need to know where your systems are located to keep track of them. If
they're not all connected or accessible by a familiar user interface, you will have a more
challenging time ensuring that no one has unauthorized access to them. You can't just check
for weaknesses in one system and assume that everything else is covered; if someone gains
access through one entry point, they may also be able to use other points of entry.
Once you know where every system is located and who has access to them, you need to
determine how they're being protected against attacks from outside and inside sources. Are
they protected against social engineering attacks? Do employees understand how
dangerous phishing emails can be?
2. Cybercriminals are out to get your business, and they're doing it in a big way. It's no secret
that though cybercriminals often target large businesses, smaller organizations are also
attractive to them. The logic is simple: small businesses usually follow a standard "not much
to steal" mindset using fewer controls and easy-to-breach data protection strategies.
In this blog, we will look at seven best practices every small business should implement
immediately to protect their organization from cyberattacks and keep their data safe from
thieves and hackers:
1) How To Identify Sensitive Data And Protect Your
Business:
When safeguarding your organization's data, you must have a plan and the right tools. Your
security team should scan your data repositories to help you understand what types of data
you have and how they're organized and categorized. Then they can collect the data into
categories based on their value to your organization. The classification can be updated as
data is created, changed, processed, or transmitted. Policies can help prevent users from
falsifying the degree of classification for data. Only privileged users should be allowed to
upgrade or downgrade the data's classification level.
2) Data usage policy is a must-have:
Data classification is an excellent first step toward establishing a data-security policy;
however, you must develop a comprehensive data-security policy that defines types of
access, classification-based criteria for data access, the people who have access to data,
and what constitutes proper data use. You should restrict user access to certain areas and
deactivate their accounts when they finish working on a project. Remember that there should
be strong repercussions for all policy breaches.
3) Monitor access to sensitive data:
Organizations need to offer appropriate access control to ensure that the right users are
accessing data. This means limiting access to information based on the concept of least
privilege—that is, only those privileges necessary for performing the intended purpose
should be offered. Here are a few essential permissions that you can define:
Full control: The user can take total ownership of the data. This includes storing, accessing,
modifying, deleting data, assigning permissions, and more.
Modify: The user can access, modify, and delete data.
Access: The user can access but cannot modify or delete data.
Access and modify: The user can access and modify data but cannot delete it.
3. 4) Safeguard data physically:
Physical security is often overlooked when it comes to safeguarding data and preventing
cybercrime. To start, lock down your workstations when not in use so that no devices are
physically removed from your location. Setting up a BIOS password can prevent cyber
criminals from booting into your operating systems. Devices like USB flash drives, Bluetooth
devices, smartphones, tablets, and laptops also require attention.
5) How To Improve Security By Implementing A Risk-Based
Approach:
Make a habit of paying attention to the risks your company faces and how they affect
employee and consumer data. This is where good risk assessment comes in.
Risk assessment allows you to:
1) identify where your assets are and what they are
2) determine the state of your cybersecurity measures
3) manage your security strategy more efficiently.
6) Train your employees:
Educate your employees about cybersecurity's best practices and protocols. Conduct regular
training sessions to keep them updated on the latest changes in the world of cybersecurity.
Ask for feedback regarding your organization's security system and demonstrate real-life
examples of attacks to show employees how their jobs may be affected if proper security
measures are not taken.
4. 7) Use multi-factor authentication:
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has become one of the most widely used security methods
to help users protect their accounts and data from hackers. MFA works by adding an extra
layer of security before authenticating an account. The process usually involves a second or
third authentication factor, such as a security token, fingerprint scanner, voice recognition, or
confirmation on your mobile phone.
Conclusion:
The threat of a data breach is ever-present, but the digital landscape is constantly evolving.
Security best practices are now open to more than just basic precautionary steps; there
needs to be proper planning for the cloud and mobile devices. The recommendations above
are a common-sense starting point in planning for a secure future and cybersecurity
concerns. However, with so many external factors, it's hard to account for every variable that
could potentially result in a data breach. In the end, your security plan is only as good as
your ability to implement this knowledge.