15 Cybersecurity Measures You Must Have in Place in 2019 – Part 2
In our last blog, we discussed 5 ways to protect your business from a cyber attack.
As the use of mobile technology in business continues to grow, the need for robust cyber security measures has become ever more urgent.
It’s clear that the threats are growing in size and evolving in nature, which is why in 2019 you need to ensure you have measures in place to secure your organisation against the ever-present, ever-growing tide of cyber threats.
These threats go hand in hand with doing business online, in the cloud and with wireless and connected devices.
Here are 5 further ways to prevent your business against cyber threats:
- Data Encryption
Data is the lifeblood of virtually every modern business.
Aside from the obvious examples such as payment details and personal information, data provides invaluable insights into customer behaviour and buying preferences, allowing predictions to be made about future demand and service provisioning.
For these reasons, as well as for compliance, safeguarding business data is no longer an optional choice – it’s a legal requirement.
In the case of portable storage devices such as laptops, smart phones and thumb drives, an encryption solution is an absolute must.
- Mobile Device Security
The use of mobile devices in business is universal. Whether it’s a smartphone, laptop or tablet, millions of employees take the workplace – and the data they work with – along with them wherever they go.
The rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) work environments also opens up a whole different set of risks and a new front for cyber criminals to attack.
It’s vital to make cyber security provision for employee mobile devices when taken outside the network, as well as for unknown or unrecognised devices brought into the network. These provisions must be capable of identifying and encrypting sensitive data or preventing the copying or transfer of certain types of confidential data according to sensitivity profiles.
- Advanced Endpoint Protection
Endpoints are potentially the most vulnerable and difficult to control elements of the network security spectrum. A well as presenting risk due to the potential of targeted attacks and exploits, endpoint devices are also a security risk due to the possibility of human error.
To protect all the endpoints across your organisation from these cyber security threats, you need a centrally managed end point security solutions to cover all the servers, desktop and laptop computers and mobile devices that may connect to your networks.
Your end point security solution may comprise antivirus, anti-spyware, personal firewall, intrusion prevention and other elements – all in a single centrally managed application
- Security Awareness Training
When you’ve got robust technology solutions deployed around your organisations to mitigate your cyber security risks, their effectiveness can be damaged if your employees are not informed and trained enough to take responsibility for their own actions.
What’s needed is to train individuals to be aware of potential risks such as phishing emails, and to resist often complex and sophisticated social grooming techniques used by hackers. Attacks of this kind usually take the form of emails which are intended to be threatening, worrying or enticing, and often appear to be completely genuine, at least at first glance.
By providing employees with security awareness training, they can be accountable and take responsibility, becoming effective components of your security solution instead of representing a risk.
Training needs to be on-going, because cyber criminals will always attempt to stay one step ahead of their intended victims.
- Web Gateway Security
A secure web gateway acts like a security fence around your organisation.
The role of your web gateway is to detect security threats that may be present on websites your network users may be browsing to (both for business or personal reasons) in the course of their work for your organisation.
Your web gateway should operate in real time, filtering and blocking dangerous or malicious traffic before it gets on to your network and reaches user devices.
Effective web gateway security analyses internet traffic, comparing the content moving through the gateway to the “allow or disallow” policies which you’ve set up. These policies could cover inappropriate sites and content as well as those which represent a security risk and can be updated against profiles of known and unknown threats and their sources.
If so configured, your gateway can provide web access for remote workers via authentication through their devices, and could be configured to spot and prevent any potential data leaks from your organisation.
Want to know more about how to secure your business against cyber threats? Speak to Alliance Solutions on 0800 292 2100 or email contactus@alliancesolutions.co.uk