Following the news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Lindy Cameron, CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has urged all UK businesses to strengthen their cyber security. This is an urgent alert in reaction to the recent hostile cyber attacks in Ukraine and the surrounding region.
Preventive Measure to Avoid Cyber Attacks For Businesses
There are numerous causes of security breaches, and businesses continue to fall for them unknowingly. Organizations in London and the UK who are serious about avoiding data security breaches can hire a London IT support company to educate their staff on preventing data breaches and set up measures to prevent threats and attacks. The steps below can be used to protect your business from cyberattacks;
1. Antivirus and Firewall
The first step in securing your company’s sensitive data is to choose a firewall and antivirus. Viruses and malware may steal any sensitive data, resulting in data breaches.
Make sure that your firewall and antivirus software are intended to manage your company’s size and security needs.
2. Educate Workers
Schedule and perform cybersecurity awareness training for all staff. Conduct phishing tests to verify that the training “stuck” with the team. To be successful, cybersecurity must emanate from the top and be embraced by all workers.
3. Data Risk Assessment and Send Secure Channel
When transferring sensitive information through an unencrypted channel, such as email, take additional precautions to ensure hackers do not intercept it. Before sending a sensitive message, it is essential to encrypt the file.
4. Make a Strategy for Dealing with Mobile Devices
Develop and implement robust cybersecurity policies and procedures
Keep in mind that cybersecurity is often used with physical security protocols. Once it is established, make sure it is followed strictly.
Incident response and cybersecurity policies and procedures must be developed to appropriately react to and limit the cost of a possible data breach.
5. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy
A Bring Your Own Device policy, often known as a BYOD policy, is an IT policy that controls the usage of personal mobile devices in the office. With research demonstrating the huge migration of personal mobile devices into the workplace, BYOD rules are becoming more relevant.
BYOD rules specify how personal mobile devices are permitted in the office, what may be done with them, and how the organization will support them.
6. Limit Access
Preventing data loss also entails restricting access to particular types of data on your network to individual workers. Allow your IT staff to determine access levels, implement rules that limit the use of corporate data, and require new hires to sign a security agreement.
Provide every worker with the permissions they need to execute their work, but keep everything that isn’t required to a minimum—the fewer individuals who have access to data, the lesser the danger of a data breach.
7. Keep Your Wi-Fi networks Safe
If your workplace has a wireless network, be sure it’s secure, encrypted, and concealed. To conceal your Wi-Fi network, configure your wireless access point or router not to broadcast the network name, also known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID).
8. Examine Email Links
Clicking on links in emails or opening files is one easy way to download malware unintentionally. Be careful when opening emails.
This also applies to information input forms that come with emails, such as those announcing a competition win. If the email’s timeliness isn’t as anticipated, don’t hand out personal information.
9. Use Difficult Password or Biometric
Don’t use information that other people are aware of, such as birthdays or pets’ names, as your business password. Make your passwords as lengthy and complicated as possible, preferably including letters, numerals, and punctuation to make them more difficult to guess.
Biometric methods like fingerprint ID and facial recognition are another effective way to protect your data.
10. Have a Strategy in Place to Deal with a Data Breach
While preventing a data breach should always be the priority, your company should also have a plan to deal with one if one occurs. In some cases, eliminating a breach quickly can save millions of dollars.
Consult a cyber security expert and devise a plan to detect, contain, and recover from a data breach.
Conclusion
You are likely to escape any cyber threat if you follow the tips above. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for preventing cyber assaults, but in order for your businesses to be protected, it is necessary to put in IT security measures.
Acting on all of the factors above can avoid many IT attacks and threats and save us from losing and exposing valuable information. It is better to begin now than later; take the IT security tips and implement them in your business.