7 Measures Businesses Should Apply to Increase their Cybersecurity

Featured article by Dan Radak, Independent Technology Author

It seems like there isn’t a single company that doesn’t rely on various online services and web-based applications and technologies to carry out various day-to-day tasks. Whether it’s advertising, buying or selling, identifying a new market, communicating with partners, suppliers, vendors, and customers or something simple as completing a bank transaction, the internet is becoming an integral part of a smooth-functioning business.

1. A strategic approach to security

The increasing number of businesses and online services they rely on coincides with the exponential growth in frequency and size of various data breaches and cybersecurity incidents. Which leads us to the conclusion that companies are simply not allocating enough time and resources into the development and utilization of cybersecurity measures. Although small businesses are the ones experiencing the full brunt of the cyber-attack storm, even the largest of corporations cannot be absolutely safe without a clear set of cybersecurity measures and a well-defined strategy to incorporate them into everyday business.

2. Corporate-wide security policy

Every business and organization need to have a clearly defined security protocols. However, for these protocols to be truly effective, the policy needs to be an integral part of corporate mentality, including every decision, process, business strategy and even the way employees operate on a day-to-day basis. It’s important to educate your workers and teach them how to recognize warning signs, engage in safe practices and tackle cyber-threats using top of the line security measures and appropriate tools.

3. Keep your software up-to-date

Although it might sound obvious and somewhat redundant, but obsolete and otherwise outdated software can easily be exploited by hackers in order to gain entry into the company network. The outdated software has been an issue for small businesses and large corporations for quite some time and has resulted in a number of security breaches over the years. This issue cannot be resolved unless it becomes a part of the greater corporate mentality and enforced with the rest of the safe cybersecurity practices.

4. Create backups regularly

Making regular backups of the company data is an excellent safeguard against data breaches and ransomware attacks. However, data can also be lost due to a mechanical (hardware) failure and in some cases, theft. Regardless of the cause, losing all company and customer data can completely ruin a company. Fortunately, this risk can easily be mitigated by scheduling automatic data backups or taking the time to back up the data yourself using an external hard-drive or a dedicated cloud-hosting solution.

5. Use complex (strong) passwords

Almost every single computer, laptop, smartphone or web-based application requires a specific access key. This can either be a password or an answer to a security question in case you can’t remember the actual password. The only problem is that the majority of people throughout the world are using a couple of extremely simple yet very popular choices, including “123456”, “123456789” and even the word “password”. A strong, secure password is one that contains letters, numbers, special symbols and even capital letters.

6. Rotate passwords

The idea behind rotating passwords is that the longer it remains unchanged, the easier it will be for hackers to guess it. Creating individual passwords is not only a painstaking process but also a waste of valuable time and resources. There are numerous websites online that can generate a random string of letters and numbers you can use for passwords. Just make sure to swap them out for new ones every few months just to be safe. Generating a strong password is one thing, but remember is a different and far more difficult task to accomplish, so make sure you avoid keeping all the passwords in a single location.

7. Remote software

Cybersecurity policies should encompass every aspect of a business, and this includes the technical support. Remote software is one of the simplest and cost-effective ways of remotely monitoring the network and sorting out issues as they appear. This is usually done by an outside company which provides remote access and other dedicated IT network solutions in order to ensure that your company’s systems are effective, reliable and, most importantly, secure.

As web-based software solutions continue to rise in popularity and more and more companies keep using them on a daily level, we’re bound to see even more malicious attacks and attempts at stealing confidential data. Protecting your company against cyber threats is as simple as incorporating the above-mentioned measures into a comprehensible cybersecurity strategy and applying it to every business aspect and part of the company.

Just do not make the assumption that the antivirus software on your computer is nearly enough to keep you and your data secure. Even though not a single business organization is completely safe from the dangers related to cyber-attacks, implementing the best security practices, educating your employees, and monitoring systems and processes for changes and anomalies is a step in the right direction.

Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is currently working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies. He is also a coauthor on several technology websites and regular contributor to Technivorz.