With the ever-increasing frequency and intelligence of cyber threats, ensuring the security of your business should be a top priority. A cybersecurity breach could have absolutely devastating effects on any company, starting from strenuous financial implications through to the lost reputation and trust of their customer base. It is, therefore, essential that businesses implement the very top security processes and technologies available. Let’s look into the variou reasons organisations become victims of cyber attacks and how different cybersecurity services can prevent them.
What are cybersecurity threats?
Cybersecurity threats are malicious attempts to gain unauthorised entry to the company’s systems and private data, damage them or gain financial gain out of them in one way or another. It can come in a variety of forms, such as phishing emails, malware and adware, internal data theft, ransomware and so on..
These attacks are typically performed by hackers and criminals, although it can also be done by activist or terrorist groups if they have a reason to disagree with your actions as a business. Contrary to what many think, hackers do not choose their victims based on the size or position – in fact, most of these attacks are automated and always looking for vulnerabilities in businesses as well as individuals.
Why are security issues increasing?
The main reason why we are seeing so many businesses affected by security issues is most commonly simply because they haven’t done enough to protect themselves. Cybersecurity is not a one-time task you can do and forget about. It is an ongoing process that must be monitored, assessed and improved together with the growth of the company and the technological developments within the industry.
Additionally, many businesses make the mistake of prioritising regulatory compliance as opposed to looking for the most effective and suitable security solutions for their processes. This way they end up focusing on a single area within cybersecurity (like data storage and protection or investing in a good antivirus software) while ignoring the many other layers involved in it (such as employee awareness, strong password protocols, cloud, network and physical security).
How to prevent cybersecurity attacks?
The first and most important thing to do is perform a thorough check of all security processes within your business and find any vulnerabilities that can be improved on. If your company does not have an in-house IT team or the resources to do this itself, it is highly recommended to opt for third-party cybersecurity services that will do this externally. They will essentially perform a number of different tests for the many layers of cybersecurity, starting with your data protection processes through to testing for human errors – this is also called penetration testing. After a thorough assessment is complete, you will be provided with a list of your weak points and different suggestions for improvement.
Furthermore, if you already have the best solutions in place, make sure to have a monitoring and assessment strategy your team can follow. The processes should be monitored over time to ensure that every aspect of your cybersecurity efforts maintain effectiveness and there are no new and more efficient methods to improve them. A high-quality regular employee training strategy (for both, new and existing employees) is also of paramount importance in order to prevent as many breaches deriving from human errors as possible.
