How to Improve your Firm’s Cybersecurity Presence

The biggest concern for companies globally is the looming risk of cyber perils. The constant threat of data breaches, major IT outages, or ransomware attacks worry most companies even more than a global pandemic or business and supply chain disruption. 

The last year alone saw high-profile cybersecurity breaches at Solar Winds, Colonial Gas Pipelines, Petra, and a dozen other companies, which had major security and economic impacts, affecting both businesses and citizens.

Multiple emerging phenomena, including bitcoin, COVID-19, and the increasingly intersecting global economies, have resulted in greater exposure and, thus, increased risk for all our digital assets. Many small and medium businesses have been aggressively targeted by ransomware, while supply chain security weaknesses and critical infrastructures were targeted and exploited.

Government-sponsored hacks have had far-reaching impact, moving down several levels from large corporate hacks and into the world of small business owners. Similarly, with the rapid shift to remote and hybrid offices, hackers have taken advantage of the vulnerabilities and gap in security of firms to perpetrate more deep hacks and ransomware attacks.

However, it is not all doom and gloom!

As a business owner, employees at giants such as Facebook and Google provide a good example of the target state you should also work to put your employees in. Most of the employees at these companies have received and follow strict cybersecurity protocols to ensure that they do not become infiltration points to the companies’ sensitive data.

The nature of these companies all but ensures that they become targets for hackers. However, management teams at both companies have made some clearly wise decisions to adopt the use of the following techniques and tools to beef up their cybersecurity:

1. Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
2. Strong passwords and security password requirements
3. Patches and security updates
4. Work from home provisions
5. Phishing awareness

Although these are just a few of the potential steps a company can take, these five are particularly easy to set up and maintain. According to the NSA/Homeland Security, these measures alone could help prevent millions of dollars in financial losses every year were they more widely adopted.

Takeaway:

Set up a security system to protect yourself from hackers and prevent sensitive data breaches. Give your company, employees, and customers the resources they need to have secure online experiences on and off your website by sharing the key tips and techniques those in-the-know use.

The five suggestions provided above are but a few of the emerging solutions that will be leveraged and layered into processes used to protect organizations and individuals from malicious players.

At VIP-IT, we take pride in educating our customers and the public at large on these solutions because the work we do provides us with such critical insights. Take a moment today to investigate the status of your firm’s cybersecurity to ensure that your sensitive data is protected.