Cyber Security Steps to Take to Reduce Risk

Cyber security strategies don’t just organically fall into place — they take planning, revisiting the plans, and testing the plans on a continual basis. Effective cyber security takes education processes across the company and the utilization of the right tools. Unfortunately, not enough companies are taking this seriously enough.

There seems to be a pervasive thought that cyber criminals only target major companies. In reality, nearly three-quarters of attacks occur in businesses with fewer than 100 employees. In fact, the Ponemon Institute found in a study that half of the small- to medium-size businesses they surveyed had been breached in the past 12 months. This is strong evidence for revisiting your cyber security strategy now.

Think About Your Mobile Risks

Most companies allow personal devices in the workplace, and these mobile personal devices can be the weak link. Best practices indicate that all personal devices should be required to have automatic security updates installed, and the organization’s password policy should also apply to any device on the system.

Firewalls Are Your Friend

A firewall is essentially the first line of defense. They are so crucial that most small- to medium-size businesses are required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use them in order to protect clients’ data from cyber criminals.

You can take your cyber security strategy to the next level by installing external and internal firewalls. Don’t forget about your remote workers who have access to company information — make sure they are also following your firewall protocol.

Password Hygiene

It’s surprising how many hackers can just waltz into areas they’re not supposed to by taking advantage of weak passwords. You probably have a password policy at your company, but are you following and enforcing it? Make your employees accountable for their password hygiene and enforce the rules.

Multifactor Identification

Multifactor identification (MFA) is a crucial risk reduction process that adds another step to logging in to a system, but it is well worth the effort. Rather than entering a password alone, users will be prompted to validate who they are by entering a code, often sent to their mobile device. The codes are randomly generated and change within seconds. It’s a great way to keep cyber criminals from gaining access to your data.

Education

As always, the cyber landscape continues to evolve, which means your employees need to be educated on the various ways in which hackers gain access to data. The more they know, the less likely they are to fall victim to scams or make silly little mistakes that can cost your company in a big way.

At Clarksys, we partner with you to ensure you’re getting the right tools to keep your company safe. We provide strategic sourcing and cloud solutions to middle market and enterprise companies, and we are ready to assist your organization by developing and implementing cloud technology solutions, including telephony and content delivery.