Cyber-attacks have been ranked as the fifth most dangerous risk in 2020, and have become the new norm in both the public and private sectors.
Cyberattack incidents will continue to grow in 2022, with the Internet of Things (IoT) focused cyber-attacks alone expected to double by 2025. Furthermore, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risk Report, the detection (or prosecution) rate in the United States is as low as 0.05 percent.
Cybercrime is expected to cost businesses worldwide $10.5 trillion per year by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015. Cybercrime represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, with a year-over-year growth rate of 15%.
So with this much financial equity at stake, it is no wonder hackers are having the time of their life and getting away with murder.
The importance of implementing strong cybersecurity measures in the workplace
Hackers have honed their abilities to detect and exploit a wide range of flaws in networks and the Internet framework. This is why many hackers target businesses with inadequate IT infrastructure on purpose. The target organization is unprepared for a cyberattack in such circumstances and suffers significant losses in terms of brand reputation, long-term clients, valuable time, and resources.
Companies that place little emphasis on cybersecurity will lose potential customers as well because if the company has had a major hacking incident made public, no customer would be willing to put their information on the line.
Customers will be especially y to if the company stores sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account information, and home addresses.
Then there’s also the matter of intellectual property and trade secrets. It is a core structure of any solid business and it is what makes a business’ product stand out from the competition. If this gets into the hands of a competitor, the brand will lose its standing and competitors will be reeling off of someone else’s ideas.
Furthermore, in order to defend against an increasing number of attacks, cybersecurity, and data protection have become more complex, necessitating a greater emphasis on security, compliance, and the way workplace do business.
The reason is simple, as hackers are becoming more skilled and adept and using several complexes. Intricate infiltration techniques, businesses need to update their cybersecurity strategy to have a fighting chance against this growing menace.
Preventive measures to keep your data safe
Here are a few tips on how your business can improve its cybersecurity practices.
1. Focus on Employee Training and Education
Small to medium businesses and companies that do not belong to the tech sector have a hard time coming to grips with the stark reality of cyberattacks. It is because they don’t expect their business would get targeted.
Another reason is that most employees at such workplaces are not tech-smart and don’t follow safety precautions when working in a digital medium. And such organizations are usually running out-of-date software or pirated programs.
Thus complacency and zero precautions make such workplaces easy pickings for hackers. It is why employee training and education should be a top priority for such workplaces.
Start off with the basics such as keeping all the software updated, using firewalls and antivirus, and using strong passwords for personal accounts.
Also, focus on scenario training so that employees can become familiar with situations in which a hacker could manipulate their emotions to gain personal information from them.
Consider the consequences of identity theft and inadequate security measures so employees are better prepared for phishing attempts.
Remind high-level employees to be cautious and avoid accessing resources via their phones or an unsecured Wi-Fi connection. Make sure that Two Factor Authentication is enabled for all of your employees’ email and personal accounts.
As the account holder receives a notification of unauthorized access on their phone and must enter a code from their phone to regain access, unauthorized personnel have a more difficult time accessing them.
2. Use Monitoring Apps
Many businesses are increasingly relying on remote monitoring tools to track their employees’ productivity. These applications abound, but only a select few are worth investing in and implementing in the workplace.
Employee cell phone monitoring software that is precise and dependable is unquestionably necessary for cybersecurity. These tools allow users to assess employee performance and help managers track people who are outside the company’s network such as is the case for remote workers. We will look at XNSPY as our example.
XNSPY‘s email monitoring and geo-tracking features prevent trade secrets from being sold online or in-person using physical storage devices like CDs or USBs.
Employers may monitor their employees’ email correspondence, in-person meetings, and travel destinations to assist managers in ensuring that employees follow proper data handling procedures.
Furthermore, it is more important than ever to secure employee cell phones because they pose a greater security risk due to their mobile nature and reliance on third-party apps downloaded from questionable sources.
End-to-end encryption can also be intercepted with XNSPY’s instant message surveillance tool. Thus ensuring that intellectual property and work data cannot be shared over an employee’s personal social media account.
XNSPY also blocks apps and emails that are not preapproved for installation and use. It prevents employees from opening emails containing suspicious links or apps that can execute the malware on the organization’s network.
Similarly, the app also enables website blocking to block webpages that download and run executable malware on the user’s device
When combined, these strategies boost a company’s confidence and enable it to deal with looming security threats. For these reasons, many businesses now utilize employee cell phone monitoring software to monitor their employees in the workplace.
3. Configure Content Delivery Networks Such As Cloudflare
Content Delivery Networks CDNs add a relay of servers for a website or web service so that it is readily available, significantly reducing the webpage load times.
It also increases the website’s security as CDNs like Cloudfare provide built-in tools that protect servers from DDoS attacks and unauthorized access.
The service looks for IPs belonging to known malicious actors or repeat offenders and blocks their access. It also distributes large incoming traffic such as in the case of a DDoS attack into manageable chunks so that the website remains operational.
So if your business has an online presence like most businesses, you should ensure that the highest security settings are enabled by default on Cloudflare.
4. Use Attack Surface Management Tools
Attack surface management software automates the process of protecting an organization’s internal network from the most vulnerable attack vectors and facets. It means that this software automatically scans and increases the security of a system’s weakest points.
It monitors the network, cloud, and application components for vulnerabilities, i.e. anything that allows a system to connect to the Internet gets monitored for vulnerabilities.
It then prioritizes the remediation of these weaknesses based on the risks they pose. So the most dangerous vulnerabilities will get fixed first.
The goal of attack surface management solutions is to provide real-time analysis of network and cloud assets for misconfigurations, weak passwords, and a plethora of other vectors.
Companies that have identified and tracked threats integrate threat data into other security solutions, automate remediation, and continuously update network defenses as new threats emerge.
It enhances a network’s security tenfold while also having immediate answers to complex threat opportunities without having to spend time and resources on upgrading one’s current security checkpoints or training one’s staff.
Conclusion
As cyber threats are at an all-time high and continue to increase, proceeding with caution should be every business’ motto.
Companies should not underestimate the best cybersecurity practices to follow as they can make all the difference between keeping the lights on and closing one’s doors for good.
But by prioritizing employee training and investing in cybersecurity tools such as monitoring apps and attack surface software, businesses can have the upper hand in this fight against evil.