In the age of digital devices, you need to use IT security solutions to protect your company’s database and network. This is because data breaches, hacking attacks, and cybercrimes are also rising along with the use of technological devices. Each year, more than 800,000 people are hacked, meaning there are 2,200 cyberattacks per day.
Implementing IT security strategies in your company will ensure you do not become a part of this statistic. So, if you want to increase the cybersecurity of your database, read this blog and learn the effective ways of making your business network more secure.
Steps to Improve Your Security Posture
Security posture is your organization’s overall cybersecurity strength. It also focuses on how well the security system predicts, prevents, and responds to innovative cybersecurity threats. By improving your security posture, you can detect malware intrusions before they infiltrate your dataset and steal sensitive information. Therefore, use these steps to upgrade your security posture.
Conduct Security Risk Assessment
A security risk assessment is performed to assess the network premises and identify vulnerabilities and potential entry points that hackers can exploit. Once you have discovered the weaknesses, use the correct tools to fix these issues and minimize the risk of an attack. The regular security risk assessment will keep you aware of your network cybersecurity, helping you mitigate upcoming attacks.
Generate an Incident Management Plan
An incident management plan provides real-time updates on all the security measures in the execution phase. It also shows how a threatening situation will be handled to return the network operation to normal. In an incident management plan, you highlight the steps an IT specialist should take if the system has been breached.
Creating an incident management plan reduces response time, decreasing the damage obtained due to the attack. You can assign specific tasks to each team member to improve team communication and collaboration, which is vital in containing a breach.
Prioritize Application Risks Accordingly
Once you have determined the potential vulnerabilities, it is time to formulate an action plan to carry out fixes. You can eliminate these risks through remediation and by installing a patch. However, it would be best if you learned to prioritize the vulnerabilities based on their high to low priority. This will help you address the issues on time before they can become a source of a cyberattack.
One tip is to focus on the security of business-critical apps, as they are the pillars of your operations. Concentrating on the apps’ IT cyber security will reduce downtime and additional repair cost.
Automate Threat Detection and Remediation
Managing and monitoring a complete database can become challenging, especially if leading a medium or large enterprise. This can allow threatening malware to find its way into your system. Therefore, use automation tools for threat detection and remediation instead of solely depending on a manual threat detection process. As a result, there will be no chances of human errors and no gaps within your security system.
These tools collect data from each virtual aspect of your network. It has a single solution system, which is used for integrating and automating tasks with workflows.
Deploy Web Gateway Security
A web security gateway, also known as a secure web gateway, falls into the category of IT security services. In this, applications are deployed at the perimeter of a network to monitor and block malicious traffic. It also prevents users from accessing suspicious websites and online resources.
The best thing about the web gateway is that it quickly detects emerging web threats and deploys countermeasures at lightning speed to intercept them. So, the threat is eliminated before it reaches and spreads in the system.
Apply Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication is a method in which users must enter two verification credentials forms to verify their login identity. For instance, employees can enter a password and biometric authentication to access their accounts. Businesses can leverage this technology to enhance their organization’s network security. This is because even if hackers gain access to one verification credentials, the second measure will prevent their entry.
Focus on Advanced Endpoint Detection and Response
Advanced endpoint detection and response is an integrated endpoint security system. It collects endpoint data and continuously monitors a network in real-time. This way, it learns about security threats. It applies rules-based automated response and analysis capabilities to protect your data from viruses, malware, and cyberattacks.
It is a replacement and advanced version of previously used antivirus programs. That is why it is also effective in stopping file-less and script-based threats that contain ransomware attacks.
Perform Dark Web Research
The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that is not accessible from the standard search engine. Cybercriminals mostly use it to conduct unlawful activities as it is easier to hide identities on the dark web. Due to this, criminals can censor their illegal activities and evade the government’s attention.
However, an IT security specialist can use the dark web to improve business security. As hackers use this platform to publish stolen data, they can track available information published for sale. These individuals work proactively to increase their security and prevent data breaches. Therefore, it is essential to research the dark web to take appropriate action on time.
Work On Contingency Planning
A contingency plan is an action strategy designed to respond effectively to specific future incidents and situations threatening an organization. The primary purpose of this plan is to reduce system downtime by resuming a company’s operations as soon as possible after it has suffered an unforeseen cyberattack. The contingency plan is also effective in protecting resources, assigning tasks, and minimizing customer inconvenience experienced due to system downtime.
Secure Your Business Systems
To further increase your business system security, you can set up firewalls and encrypt sensitive data. This will make it difficult for hackers to access your confidential information. Wi-Fi or internet connection is another vulnerable point that can lead cyber criminals to your network. You can block this pathway by hiding your network and protecting it with a strong password.
Regularly Update Your Security System
As cyber criminals keep evolving their techniques to infect organizations’ networks and databases, you need to update the security system to remove flaws. This will make it strong enough to tackle the attacks. As a result, it is essential to use different cybersecurity tools and install regular security updates. Another effective way is to outsource IT security services. These services have a team of cybersecurity professionals that are expert in developing a healthy security posture that protects and mitigate threats.
Educate Your Employees About Cybersecurity
Educating your employees about their role in securing and protecting the company’s network is essential. This process assists organizations in understanding the security policies and implementing them properly, certifying that malware does not enter the system due to human error. Therefore, you need to invest in employee training programs that teach the importance of cybersecurity concepts and ways to maintain network security. This training can discuss the types of files that individuals can open and download, which websites are safe for visiting, and other critical information.
You can use IT security consulting services to ensure that your organization’s systems are always secured and that your employees are updated with the recent security measures.
Implement Cybersecurity Policies to Protect Sensitive Information
Having uniform cybersecurity policies strictly followed by employees plays a significant role in protecting your company against all cyberattacks. Moreover, it helps in quick risk mitigation if malware is detected in the system.
Employees are one of the vulnerabilities you must address to strengthen your security system. This is because they can open weak links, share passwords, and click on malicious URLs. Due to cybersecurity policies, employees become aware of their role and responsibilities in protecting the systems from attacks and follow necessary measures. Therefore, create policies about email encryption, accessing web apps remotely, safe social media use, and password and login credentials protection, among others.
Utilize Best Payment Transaction Practices
Secure payment transaction practices will prevent your customers’ confidential banking details from falling into the clutches of cybercriminals. Organizations should use a secure payment gateway that provides a safe connection for submitting, authorizing, settling, and reporting transactions on their banking networks.
A secure payment keeps customers’ data protected while saving you from payment fraud by giving alerts on expired cards, insufficient account funds, closed accounts, and cards with exceeded credit limits.
Another best payment practice is to install the SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) system for processing transactions. It is an electronic protocol that checks the integrity and security of each transaction received through the internet. SET is neither a transaction gateway nor a payment system. Instead, it is a collection of security protocols that address payment privacy, authenticity, and security concerns.
Acquire Managed Cybersecurity Services
Managed cybersecurity services mean outsourcing IT security consultancy to monitor and manage your network security system and the security of your company’s devices and web applications. By acquiring these services, you can get firewalls, intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning, antivirus installation, and other protective measures for your systems. You can learn more about managed cybersecurity services on CXI Solutions.
Wrapping Up
Cybersecurity is now one of the most important things you need to focus on as a business owner. Since cybercrimes are rising, your company’s systems, reputation, and sensitive information are constantly at risk of cyberattacks. Therefore, improve your security posture, provide employee cybersecurity training, and implement security policies and safe transaction practices in your organization. You can also use managed security services from CXI Solutions to get complete IT security for your organization’s database and network.
