Best Practices for Cybersecurity: A 2022 Guide

No matter what you do or how good you are at it, you can be a victim of a cyber attack. Over the years, we have heard reports of cyber attacks from sectors such as financial institutions, healthcare providers, educational institutions, and government agencies, among others.

Different dangers, ranging from ransomware to insider threats, hackers, spyware, and other forms of dangers are very common today. Unfortunately, as technology advances, cybercriminals are finding new techniques to access sensitive information.

This has made threat detection and protection one of the most important things for individuals and businesses. That notwithstanding, you can follow these best practices as a cyber security pro to ensure that you are protected at all times;

Use Updated Network Security Protocols

Technology changes from time to time. Global pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic might also force businesses to change how they operate. For instance, the last three years have seen businesses adopting the concept of remote work.

This means that you should make sure that you are using updated network security protocols. For example, ensure that your VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and firewalls have the right functionalities to support remote workers.

In addition, the network protocols should allow you to monitor your systems, traffic, and everyone who has access to the systems. If you cannot do this, you can adopt a cloud service that comes with managed security protocols.

Updated Security Policies

This is one of the things that most businesses do not look at. When developing security policies, businesses tend to follow the existing technology and trends in cyber attacks. This is good and will help businesses protect themselves.

However, it is important to note that technology keeps on changing. A security feature that was effective five years ago might not be effective today. It might even be outdated. Imagine the danger a business can be exposed to using policies based on such a security feature!

As technology advances and businesses implement new systems, applications, and infrastructures, they also need to ensure that they have updated their security policies. In addition, they should keep tabs on top cybersecurity trends and ensure that employees understand them all.

Always Be Prepared for Attacks

Cyber attacks can happen at any time. Businesses should always be prepared all the time for any attacks that might happen. This is important in helping them navigate the negative impact of an attack.

Part of ensuring that you are prepared is getting the right equipment, software, and systems in place to identify any threats before they cause damage. If you do not have enough capacity to do that, you can hire USWired’s services for your business.

Such companies ensure that you have the right technology in place. They also train you and your employees on how to identify breaches and what to do in case of an attack. This will help you fight cybercriminals in your business.

Strong Authentication

Most of the time, cybercriminals gain access to compromised personal accounts and use them to access the internal resources of a business. These accounts are synonymous with poor or weak authentication.

As part of the cybersecurity best practices, you need to ensure that you have strong authentication policies for everyone using your systems. You can enforce this using smart cards or multi-factor authentication.

In case this is expensive for your business, then make sure that everybody uses strong passwords. You can set password policies that everyone has to abide by and penalties for those who do not. For instance, require all employees to set passwords of a certain length and use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and special characters.

Train Your Employees

Most business cyber-attacks happen through employees. This does not happen because the employees are compromised, but because they are not aware of the right security measures that they need to implement.

In addition, a bigger percentage of businesses that train their employees on cybersecurity only spend a couple of minutes doing so. They think that it is a waste of time. However, businesses need to ensure that all employees understand how important security is.

Employees need to know what they should do to enforce security and protect their employers from cyber attacks. This means that businesses should spend enough time with all employees training them on cybersecurity and how to protect themselves and the business.

Following the best practices for cybersecurity discussed above, you will protect yourself and your business from cyber-attacks. You will also be ready to handle any attack without major losses.