How To Protect Your Business from Cyber Threats in 2021

Time and time again we read headlines of cyber attacks on businesses. Be it small enterprises or MNCs, cybersecurity is a rapidly growing field businesses are switching their focus on.

The COVID pandemic-resulted work from home norms has made it ever so difficult for businesses to stay on top of their cybersecurity game.

Cybersecurity during pandemic

Before the work went remote, most people used to work from offices where the IT team administered the security risks and the spoke-hub distribution paradigm which ensured the internal communications, emails, video conferences, and messaging were governed by a central security hub.

But the newer working culture has induced new potential cyber threats by separating the employees and devices from the cybersecurity team.

Tom McVey, Solutions Architect at Menlo Security was cited saying, “During the pandemic we’ve seen a big jump in both email phishing attacks and mobile phone scams (known as ‘smishing’).

These messages, such as an email about the COVID-19 vaccine or text messages about failed courier deliveries from Amazon, seem genuine to the untrained eye. Look more closely and you see they contain malicious links that lead to scammers’ websites.”

With cybersecurity evidently being under threat, I’ll list down a few ways you can protect your business from cyber threats. Read on!

7 ways to protect your business from cyber threats

1.   Check out Office 365 Secure Score

If your business makes use of Office 365 or Microsoft 365 Business, then you should check out your Office 365 Secure Score. It measures an organization’s security status and provides suggestions to improve your Office 365 security score.

By implementing those suggestions, you can rest assured of the security of your network. The higher the score, the more measures taken to improve the security.

Following are a few ways Secure Score helps organizations.

• Current reports on organizational security
• Provides discoverability, visibility, guidance, control
• Comparison with benchmarks and establish KPIs

2.   Keep an eye on G-suite recommendations

Alternatively, if you are using Google’s suite of applications for your business, you can lock your G-suite account.

There are a lot of available resources online that can help you sail through the security measures to protect your G-suite account.

Check out these simple tips.

• Enable multi factor authentication
• Utilize single sign-on with Google Identity
• Take a look at the admin roles
• Use G-suite team drives

3.   Backup your systems

Backing up your systems is vital in ensuring safety from cyber threats. Regularly backup your systems and store the data on an encrypted device outside the usual network.

Also, make sure not to use the same network login credentials on your backup device. Only use complex credentials on your backup device to prevent the cyber attackers from getting access to your sensitive business information and servers.

Check out this amazing article which talks about how companies backup data with high impact Bulk Electric System (BES) cyber systems. As an added note, some companies like NERC CIP are expertised in handling power grid hackers and keeping them at the bay.

4.   Leverage a password manager

With the amount of applications we use these days, we have normalized using the same password for all of them, and on multiple accounts.

With the help of a password manager, you will never have to worry about your passwords for different applications and accounts. It suggests complex passwords which are difficult to crack for any hacker.

Also, it auto-fills the password for websites, applications, system logins, forms, and account details so you don’t have to type them manually.

If your employees use Google Chrome browser, password management becomes easy as Google provides the feature to store passwords of accounts, websites, and apps. But may be asked to login to your Google account every fortnight or monthly for verification purposes.

Also, you can take caution from your part to not set the most vulnerable passwords for your work accounts. If your password falls in this list, change it right away.

5.   Utilise malware scanners

Malware scanners are yet another budget-friendly way to protect your business from cyber threats. They detect any malware threats in the systems dynamically.

There are innumerable malware scanners available in the market. The most popular one being the McAfee which includes two years of premium antivirus, safe web browsing and PC optimizations.

Note that, as with any other security measure, you will have to keep the malware scanner’s systems and definitions up-to-date, failing which the malware threats may not be detected effectively.

6.   Online security training

Malicious emails and phone calls are the most common forms of social engineering cyber attack. Online video resources on YouTube are the best source for free security training.

Just by watching a few videos on phishing, malware, or social engineering could put your employees at a better place to tackle cyber threats and falling prey to malicious phone calls and emails.

For an overview of cyber threats and prevention, check out this video.

7.   Lock your IP address

If you are planning to migrate your site to a new host, don’t forget to lock down the IP address of the device from which you control the site. Thereafter, enable two-factor authentication which along with locking down your IP address, ensure a three-factor authentication.

If your CRM is linked to tools like HubSpot or WordPress, they by default provide two-factor authentication besides locking down the IP address. Therefore, locking down the IP address in combination with two-factor authentication will prevent malicious spyware and malware from other locations from logging into your sensitive work related accounts like the CRM, trade-union membership, etc.

Step up your cybersecurity

Once you enable these settings to your business network, you can rest assured that cyber attackers will stay at bay from your private business data. You will be in a better position to handle and monitor the activities inside your business network and identify any sort of threat that may arise.

Keep the systems up-to-date and keep an eye on your malware scanner. It is the most important aspect of security from cyber threats as it detects the latest virus, spyware, ransomware, or malware attacks while ensuring a safe private network.

Let us know in the comments section below if you have any questions regarding the security against cyber threats for your organization.

Featured Image credit: Photo by cottonbro from Pexels.