This year, cyber-attacks have increased sharply due to the chaos caused by the Coronavirus outbreak, accelerating an upward curve that has been occurring for the past five years.
Irrespective of the current economic climate, it’s is estimated that attacks will continue to rise and evolve in sophistication throughout the end of 2021 and beyond. Businesses have been adopting new security solutions in recent years, but training and internal policies must also be updated so they can effectively combat the threat.
The following are 4 activities businesses looking to become data-centric and secure should consider in 2021:
Register With A Regulatory Body
Those in the legal and financial sectors should be especially wary of data breaches, considering the sensitive nature of their data, and need to register with a regulatory body. There are numerous federal acts and Data Privacy Laws, it is promoted any organization that processes personal information and isn’t exempt to register with a regulator
Being a business registered with a regulatory body lets your clients, customers, or partners know that you’re serious about data protection. Ultimately, complying with regulatory standards will also ensure that your customers’ data will be better protected and their rights will be respected.
Get Trained and Certified
Your security posture can be improved by many outside solutions, but internal changes are just as important. Organizations should strongly consider taking virtual training with their MSP and asking them for recommendations on best security vendor certifications.
Also, consider holding regular company-wide training to refresh knowledge. By training your employees well, you create a “human firewall”, a significant obstacle to overcome in order to gain access to your business networks.
Implement Cybersecurity Policies
Regardless of the business being part of a regulated organization, it’s a good idea to set up internal policies regarding the handling of data. Decide on the level of security that needs to be applied to the different types of information in your company.
A company’s sensitive information should not be shared with parties outside of the organization. Moreover, there may also be restrictions in other areas, such as the devices that can access the data. In case any one of your data categories were compromised, create a disaster plan of action.
It would be an excellent investment to protect your business against lost or stolen data, so deploying a zero trust architecture should be considered as an insurance policy against inaccurate or stolen data. In these times, it costs $ 4 million to run a zero-trust cyber security framework, due to the high cost of even the smallest data breach.
Consider Penetration Testing
It is valuable to have an ethical hacker test your defenses even though there is a lot you can do with good training and policies. By conducting a penetration test of your business, you will be able to see your business infrastructure from an attacker’s perspective and identify any weaknesses you may have overlooked.
In addition to predicting outside threats, a penetration test can help you predict threats caused by rogue employees that may have network access within your organization. Once any loopholes are identified, the experts can then develop a strategy to close them.
These are by no means the only requirements for a business to keep themselves and their employees and customers safe. What do you do to ensure protection? Please share your ideas in the comments below
