Cyberattacks can cause devastating damage to businesses, ranging from financial loss to reputational damage and a loss of valuable digital assets.
As a result, even a single cyberattack can be a major setback for large-scale companies while causing smaller businesses to suffer bankruptcy.
But what’s more concerning is that in today’s digital business world, cyberattacks have become an ever-growing threat as cybercriminals continue to find more targets.
More importantly, with rapidly evolving technology, cyberattacks have evolved as well, now causing more damage than ever before. In such a situation, your business is constantly at risk of being attacked.
Keeping in mind the damage caused by cyberattacks, it’s crucial to secure your business effectively. Without doing so, you may lead your business directly into the hands of a cybercriminal. So, to help you with this purpose, here are five tips for preventing a cyberattack from ruining your business.
5 Tips For Preventing A Cyber-Attack From Ruining Your Business
Train your employees
Cybersecurity threats not only emerge from external sources but can also originate from within your business. So, to maintain foolproof security against cyberattacks, it’s essential to focus on insider threats.
In particular, human error caused by untrained employees is one of the biggest dangers to your business. In fact, cybercriminals actively look for inexperienced employees as they can easily be manipulated into providing confidential information.
For instance, cyberattacks are often initiated by asking for credentials through fake emails that appear authentic as part of phishing attacks. However, if you have trained your employees, they will exercise caution and keep security practices in mind.
As a result, attacks, such as phishing, will be easily prevented. It’s prudent to encourage your employees to pursue advanced courses, such as a master’s in cybersecurity. Such education programs will help them understand cybersecurity practices in detail, enabling them to secure your business effectively.
More importantly, you can use trained workers to develop a cybersecurity department for your business. While it may seem tough for workers to pursue advanced courses, a master’s in cybersecurity can easily be pursued online with incredible flexibility.
So, encourage your employees to enroll in an online masters in cybersecurity and ensure a secure future for your business.
Backup data
While the risk of a cyberattack can be reduced, it can never be eliminated. So, regardless of your company’s cybersecurity measures, an attack can still occur.
So to prevent a cyberattack from ruining your business, you must be prepared to mitigate the damage in case it occurs. For this purpose, it’s essential to back up your data. With several copies of your digital assets stored in different locations, losing a single copy to a cyberattack won’t affect your business.
More importantly, your business will be immune to ransomware attacks, as you will not need to provide a ransom for your data. In case of any cyberattack, you can always recover your data using a backup.
However, for an effective recovery strategy, keeping an on-site and an off-site backup is essential. Doing so ensures you have enough backups to counter cyberattacks in different locations.
For off-site backups, it’s a good idea to use cloud services as they can provide secure storage at affordable costs. Additionally, it’s best to encrypt data stored in backups. If your backups are stolen, the attackers will not be able to use encrypted data.
Test your digital infrastructure
Vulnerabilities and security gaps in digital systems present an open opportunity for cybercriminals to perpetrate attacks. As a result, they are constantly trying to find weaknesses in technological systems. So, to protect your business, it’s essential to prioritize finding such weaknesses before cybercriminals do.
The best way to do so is by frequently testing your company’s digital infrastructure. By putting your networks, software, and systems through evaluation and assessments, you can identify potential entry points for cybercriminals and seal them before a cyberattack ruins your business.
Penetration testing is one of the most effective ways to test your digital infrastructure. It involves simulating real-world attacks on your systems and analyzing how your security measures act against them.
If any security measure fails and the attack succeeds, you will know which area to reinforce for better security against cyberattacks. Around 70% of companies use penetration testing for vulnerability management due to its effectiveness.
But in addition to penetration testing, you can also utilize vulnerability scanning tools that can automatically check your system for weaknesses such as outdated software.
Monitor digital systems
Keeping an eye on your digital systems is a great way to prevent a cyberattack from occurring. By monitoring your systems, you can identify any suspicious activity that may indicate a cyberattack.
This information will allow you to take action before the attack causes any harm to your business. However, to effectively monitor your digital infrastructure, it’s essential to automate the process. With an automated monitoring system, you can constantly analyze digital activity and evaluate a vast amount of business data.
For automated monitoring, it’s best to make use of AI-powered technology. For instance, you can use an AI intrusion detection system that works in coordination with an intrusion prevention system.
The monitoring system will automatically track user activity, system logs, network traffic, and data access attempts. If it detects any dangerous activity, the intrusion prevention system will be activated to handle any threats to your business.
Use multi-factor authentication
If you have a simple password to guard your data, a cybercriminal can enter your system in just a few minutes. It’s not surprising that passwords are behind 80% of data breaches that occur.
Considering this, it’s a good idea to use safer authentication methods than passwords. For this purpose, implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a foolproof strategy.
Unlike passwords, MFA passes the user through several layers of authentication, such as biometrics, passwords, and PINs. Data access is allowed only when the user passes through each verification method.
However, if the user fails authentication at any point, the MFA system does not allow access and sends an alert. As a result, you will be aware if an unauthorized person is trying to gain access to confidential data. This will allow you to take action before a cybercriminal attacks your business.
Conclusion
In the modern business world, technology plays an important role in driving companies toward success. However, at the same time, it offers cybercriminals the perfect opportunity to steal data and cause major damage to businesses using cyberattacks.
To thrive in the modern landscape, it’s essential to use technology and guard it with effective strategies. So, make sure to use the tips mentioned above and save your businesses from being ruined.
