How to Prevent Cyberattacks and Threats from Happening to You

Cyberattacks have been on the rise in recent years. Last year, nearly 300 million people were impacted by data breaches across nearly 2,000 separate attacks. 

Businesses have a responsibility to themselves and their customers to protect sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands. This protection begins with taking the necessary steps to prevent cyberattacks before they occur.

Here are a few tips to curtail cyber threats from compromising your business systems. These include internal system security tips as well as website security suggestions.

Access Management 

Many cyberattacks begin with human error. Visiting malicious websites and inadvertently installing infected software on a system can wreak having on your entire network. That’s why it’s critical for your IT department to manage administrator rights and lock down business systems to prevent the installation of malicious software.

Employee Accounts

Each employee who accesses any business system needs their own login credentials. Some organizations use a single company-wide login for systems that multiple employees access. However, this opens the door for cyberattacks by increasing the potential attack surface. Individual employee logins are an effective way to track where an attack originated if it occurs as a result of compromised credentials.

Web Security

Securing your website is just as critical to preventing cyberattacks as securing your internal systems. This is especially true if your website has customer data linked to it. But what is website security? 

Website security involves all systems to protect against, detect, and remove cybersecurity vulnerabilities. In particular, the best website security suites will include a wide range of features, including:

• Website scanning for malware
• Malware removal
• Security vulnerability patches
• Web application firewalls (WAFs)
• Website backups

It’s understandable to want to keep business expenses down, but web security is an affordable and worthwhile investment. Web security jobs require CISSP certification to ensure that you have the right people to solve complex cybersecurity issues.

Software Updates

Software updates should always be installed as soon as possible. Most updates to any software include bug fixes and patches to security vulnerabilities. It’s a good practice on your web server and computer to run software updates immediately. If you’re hesitant about an update for any reason, it’s a good practice to view the change log provided with the update. That way, you’ll be able to determine whether the update is critical for security.

Data Backup

Backing up your data frequently may not prevent a cyberattack, but it will provide easy recovery from malware infection. If your system is infected with malware, the simplest solution is typically to restore it to a previous state. Regular automated backups will ensure your most recent data is completely recoverable if your website or internal systems fall victim to cyberattacks.

Cybersecurity Prevention is Critical in All Business Systems

Controlling access to your company’s computers and intranet is vital, but so is investing in top-of-the-line website security systems. Cyberattacks can be targeted at your network, individual computers, or your web server. Thus, it’s crucial to put a full cybersecurity plan in place. Following these tips is a great start, and ensuring that employees are aware of cybersecurity’s importance is a fundamental component of protecting your business