Six Ways to Prevent Cyberattacks
No matter how elaborate your cybersecurity is, there are loopholes which can be exploited by hackers. Cyberattacks happen. However, many types of cybercrime that can be prevented by layered, complete cybersecurity solutions. There are a number of things you can do to prevent cyberattacks before they happen. Let’s have a look at six ways to prevent cyberattacks!
1. Create a Cybersecurity Awareness Program
Set up a cybersecurity awareness program for your employees through training, mini-workshops and documents. Ensuring that everyone is on the same level of recognition about cybersecurity tools, techniques, and preventative measures is key to securing your workplace and preventing cyberattacks. At the end of the day, the prevention of cyberattacks will always lay in the hands of the people who work with you—not just the members of the cybersecurity team.
2. Encrypt Your Data
Encryption involves hiding sensitive data in a code that cannot be easily tampered with. Data, and ultimately information, needs to be for privileged eyes only. Go for full-disk and cloud encryption for data in software format. When it comes to data that needs to be carried around on a portable device, encrypting the external hard drive will provide an additional layer of security.
3. Create Privileges
Access to secure files and the work network should not be granted to every individual in your organization. Access should be granted on a per role basis according to the responsibilities of the individual in question. Security clearance or restricted access is an important layer that should always be included in your work environment in order to stop cyberattacks before they happen.
4. Backup Your Data
Beyond encrypting data and drives, making backups is the next logical step to take for data protection. Should a cyberattack cause data to be stolen, deleted, or displaced—a situation you want to avoid if at all possible—your business can bounce back in the shortest possible time through the restoration of lost data, even while a cybersecurity team searches for the source of a data breach.
5. Create Strong Passwords
Teach your staff how to create strong passwords. Most passwords are created without careful thought and this makes it pretty easy for dictionary attacks to occur; to counterattack this form of cyberattack, passwords should be reasonably long, contain alphanumeric characters and symbols as well. We recommend password changes from time to time (say, twice a year or each quarter).
6. Implement Policies and Checks
If your IT infrastructure involves cloud usage, ensure that your policies conform to the stipulated cloud governance policies. Create your cloud governance policy and cybersecurity policy and ensure your staff knows about both. In order to maintain the protection of your valued assets, files, and documents, consistent cybersecurity checks must be mandatory. It is better to be prepared and prevent a cyberattack than to be targeted through a hole in your security that developed due to negligence.
While these six steps will get you and your company on the right track to avoiding cyberattacks, the implementation of some of these steps is more complicated than it seems. That’s where we come in: Element Technologies has been serving small to mid-size businesses for over thirty years. We offer totally outsourced Managed IT Services and Cybersecurity Solutions. If it’s mentioned here, we can do it: Encryptions, backups, even security awareness training.
For more information on the cybersecurity services Element Technologies offers, check out our website at ele-ment.com or give us a call at (612) 876-5432.