As cyberattacks continue to ravage businesses worldwide, many companies have taken steps to counter the effects. Unfortunately, over 43% of businesses dealt with countless breaches to their security systems in the past year alone. That isn’t good news and indicates weak links that must be identified. Have you evaluated your business’s security posture and how it can bounce back if a breach ever happens? These are some tips for your consideration.
1. Review your business’s existing security controls
Even when your company has already set up security controls to safeguard all online activities, more must be done. Cyberattacks continue to evolve, and it’s important to stay a few steps ahead. It starts with evaluating your current security controls to check for weak links. The purpose of these assessments is also to help you revise your response times if a security breach ever happens. For example, did you know that your current firewalls for your network can be breached even without setting off any alarms on your computer systems? Do not allow that to happen to you.
Firewall bypassing happens because cyberattacks continue to be strengthened with the help of technology. However, with an updated intrusion detection system, your IT team will receive an instant automated alert to help them take timely action. This is one of many benefits you can gain when you regularly assess your existing security controls. Remember to add new security layers to strengthen your network each time you do these evaluations.
2. Deliberately ‘attack’ your business’s security systems
This point rides on the concept of mystery shopping. It is a practice where businesses hire external individuals to act as shoppers to evaluate companies. The idea is to assess the quality of customer service and other relevant information within the organisation. The information gathered is then used to correct service delivery anomalies. In reference to your business’s security posture, this concept can be useful to you.
In this case, you can direct your IT team to deliberately ‘attack’ the company’s internal security systems. This should trigger your intrusion detection systems and, hopefully, automatically set pre-installed mitigating measures to protect the network. Your deliberate action can be a useful window to see how a breach can impact your business’s security systems in real-time. This is more or less a rehearsal for the real thing if it ever happens. You may also want to use physical pen testing to check for any physical and digital security weaknesses.
3. Regularly update your employees’ security knowledge
Your employees are your internal customers, and your security begins with them. Their updated knowledge of security vulnerabilities can save your company from avoidable financial loss. According to data, employee error is often the reason for many security breaches. It can be a phishing email, opening unauthorised links, unknowingly providing sensitive information to an outsider, and so on. In a way, the buck stops with your employees and how well-versed they are in preventive security measures.
This approach works well during the onboarding of new employees. It is advisable to bring them up to par with the rest of your staff. While doing that, the training will also be a refresher course for your old staff. Making best security practices a core feature of your company’s staff training programmes is recommended.