As the threat of cyber-attacks keeps growing, businesses must learn the importance of cyber security. In current times, hackers and threat actors are getting bigger and bolder in compromising networks and systems.
Therefore, we can minimize data breaches by looking at this Cyber Security Report 2023 and implementing the industry’s best practices. But what exactly are these best practices? Moreover, how do organizations protect themselves against growing cyber threats?
This guide will help shed light on the matter and give you a definitive answer to both questions. So with all that said, let’s start.
Understanding the Fundamentals of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is something few people pay attention to. Therefore, education becomes essential. Through education, employees and cybersecurity professionals can work together to understand how attacks are carried out and what can be done to stop them.
Not only will this greatly improve your organization’s cyber security, but it will also eliminate the chance of your employees getting compromised. Cybersecurity education is essential for several reasons. Firstly, the cybersecurity landscape shows us that social-engineering hacks are the most common threats.
Social-engineering attacks are meant to trick the user into falling victim. The most common social-engineering attack is a phishing attack. By understanding how phishing and similar threats work, we can stop them and protect our sensitive data.
Education is one of the fundamental security measures your organization must invest in for 2023.
Acquire Third-Party Solutions
Native systems lack the capacity to implement modern cybersecurity solutions. Even operating systems rely on third-party antivirus software to protect workloads. That’s exactly what you need to do to protect your organization.
Third-party software as a service (SaaS) solutions focusing on cybersecurity understand how cyber attacks work and how to stop them. In addition, they come equipped with the latest cloud security tools that prevent security risks and protect critical infrastructure.
Moreover, these solutions use artificial intelligence (AI) to battle against cyber warfare. No form of cybersecurity software is better equipped to stop cyber criminals than advanced threat protection tools.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) includes a series of security measures and controls designed to detect all kinds of threats before they can take effect. Using machine learning, these solutions can monitor endpoints, scan emails, and study known threats and issue responses.
Foster A Cybersecurity-Centric Culture
Hackers aren’t going away anytime soon. After all, it is a very profitable business. It’s so profitable that hackers managed to steal upward of $3 billion across 125 high-profile hacks in 2022 alone.
This puts security teams on high alert, as anyone can be a target regardless of size. Another way to strengthen your cybersecurity is to foster a cybersecurity-centric culture where every team member plays their part.
But how? We already mentioned the importance of education. But organizations must use the valuable knowledge gained through education and put it into practice. For example, employees must be cautious when handling incoming emails if email is the biggest attack vector for hackers.
Device security is another avenue for hackers to exploit native security systems. Therefore, employees must learn how devices get compromised and avoid falling victim since devices such as smartphones and tablets are far less secure than personal computers or laptops.
Essentially, everyone has to play their part. And the only way to do that is by fostering a cybersecurity-centric workplace culture.
The Zero Trust Model
We’ve developed all kinds of cybersecurity models over the years. One we’d like to highlight is the zero-trust model. Zero trust is a security framework where all users must be authenticated, authorized, and validated before granting access to applications, services, software, and data. This is irrespective if employees are your own or from an outside entity.
So long as someone needs access to your data, the zero-trust model comes into play. So how exactly can zero trust protect your organization? One of the core principles of zero trust is assuming there is no traditional network edge. As a result, employees, suppliers, and anyone using your system can access data from anywhere – remotely and locally.
Therefore, these people and their devices must be checked before they can access the data. Zero trust uses authentication applications, identity protection solutions, and endpoint security to protect data. Without them, anyone can gain access to your valuable data. But with zero trust, even a senior vice president would need to pass an identity checker to access data.
We can do that with multifactor authentication, email security (encryption), and endpoint validation. These aren’t new technologies, but their implementation is essential for your organization’s security against bad actors. The zero trust model ranks high on the cybersecurity trends index and is one of the best preventative measures an organization can use.
Patch Software Regularly
You might have heard that cybercriminals look to exploit security holes in software. That’s precisely why patch management is essential for your cybersecurity. Every organization must keep systems, software, and similar components up to date.
Without it, organizations risk providing hackers with a means to gain access to their systems. Even human error plays a big part in that. By using a patch management system where every software gets patched regularly, you risk the chances of falling victim to a cyber attack.
Always Have a Cybersecurity Strategy In Place
At the end of the day, businesses and organizations will lack the capacity to protect against phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, and similar malware without a strategy in place. Fortunately, an organization can use more than one strategy to achieve total protection.
The type of strategy depends on one organization to another. Some organizations choose to protect critical information infrastructure, while others focus on creating a secure cyber ecosystem. Regardless, every organization must abide by the rules of the strategy. For example, if the strategy says connected devices must be secured properly, there cannot be exceptions.
Conclusion
That concludes this guide on how to protect your organization. Cybersecurity should be a topic of discussion at the organizational level. Only then can we learn how to issue responses to new challenges across industry sectors.