2020 has come and gone, and what a whirlwind it has been. Many of us have had to make huge adjustments and changes to the way we work and operate a business, but this doesn’t mean the security of your data and networks should have to suffer. In 2020, there was a 50% increase in cyber threats compared to 2019, and 47% of employees fell for a phishing scam due to working-at-home distractions. Make 2021 the year of prioritising cyber security in your business – incorporating just a few simple procedures into your working culture will massively reduce your risk of a cyber attack or threat, and we will help you every step of the way.
Staff awareness training is one of the most effective ways to reduce your risk of a cyber attack or breach. Implementing comprehensive cyber security awareness training is the best way to protect your business.
Cyber Essentials is a government-backed certification that shows your organisation has the correct procedures in place that reduce the risk of a breach.
A cyber attack can come at any time, and in many different ways – Cyber Essentials is an evaluation that assesses your company’s technology defences to determine the current vulnerabilities and risk level whilst reducing your organisation’s risk by an average of 80%.
3. Backing Up and Encryption
Enabling automatic company backups is one of the only ways to ensure your data is available if you ever suffer a breach. Encrypting data whenever possible will also make it incredibly difficult for a cyber criminal to compromise files or electronic messages that could be sensitive.
Pre-emptively identifying and strengthening your security vulnerabilities is one of the best ways to prevent a cyber attack or breach. Regular simulated hacking (penetration testing) is key to safeguarding your computer systems, your data and your clients’ data.
5. Know Your Data
Not only should you know what the classification of your data is, but data handling and compliance is one of the most important aspects of your business. Incorrectly classifying data could result in this falling into the wrong hands, e.g. confidential or sensitive information being sent via email without encryption could be seen by anyone.
6. Patching and Updating
Keeping your devices up to date and enabling regular security patches will protect these, and your data, against new threats. It is common for cyber criminals to use tools that will continuously scan for any devices that haven’t been updated, which are then much easier to compromise.
7. Two-Factor Authentication
Adopting multi-factor authentication into your working culture is one of the easiest ways to ensure devices and data have that added protection. According to Microsoft, the use of multi-factor authentication can reduce the risk of an identity compromise by 99.9%! Additionally, Google found that not one of its 85,000+ employees had an account compromised since introducing mandatory multi-factor authentication.
