In this Article You can see Tips and Strategies for your Cybersecurity Planning , which is very important for your Business.
In 2020, the Internet Crime Complaint Center reported an increase of about 300% in cybercrimes. There has been an evident increase in cyber-attacks as cybercriminals have evolved and are using updated techniques that are hard to detect, allowing them to go for even high-value targets. Cybercriminals use techniques such as ransomware, malware, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, internet of things (IoT) and app connectivity attacks.
Therefore, no matter the size of your business or what sector you’re in, there’s a clear need to develop a cybersecurity plan to protect your business information and technology assets. A cybersecurity plan deals with security policies, controls, and procedures to keep your business safe from cyber threats and attacks. In this post, we’re outlining the various tips and strategies that you must know when developing and executing your cybersecurity plan. Take a look!
1. Hiring The Best Team
The first step in creating and executing your cyber security strategy is having qualified personnel for the job. No matter the size of your business or industry, ensure to hire the best IT experts as they’re your first line of defense. This means looking at their education, experience, and knowledge of the IT industry’s changing trends. Having a qualified IT team also helps you train other employees in different departments. Training your staff on cybersecurity is an excellent way to enhance additional security. If you’re looking to hire a qualified team for the job, you may want to consider Managed IT services from AT-Net.
Suppose the business is small and you cannot hire an IT crew; you can link with a cybersecurity consultant to help you strategize a great cybersecurity plan for your business. While many may consider hiring a cybersecurity consultant as an unnecessary expense, not only does he help come up with a plan but also helps you understand the current changes in trends, technology, and threats, all of which are worth investing in.
2. Conducting A Cybersecurity Assessment
Every business should conduct a cybersecurity assessment to ensure that the plan is viable and follows all the right procedures and regulations. Although you can follow the Center for Internet Security Control (CISC) checklist, specialists prefer involving a third party to evaluate your business’ security systems. The evaluation involves reviewing your security controls against the best practices in the industry and the regulatory requirements. The consultant then analyzes the results and may suggest some areas for improvement.
Another way of cybersecurity assessment is creating a baseline that helps you measure and track your security over time. After an assessment, the baseline provides an action plan with security recommendations.
After the cybersecurity assessment, you should also conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment to help identify any vulnerabilities or potential gaps in your security controls. A risk assessment gives deep insight into areas that can be easily exploited and helps point out which steps to be taken first.
3. Developing An Incident Response Plan
Every business should include an incident response plan in their cybersecurity plan. Cybercriminals have evolved in that they can bypass advanced security solutions. So, an incident response plan helps you and your employees know what steps to take and who to call during a crisis. This helps prevent cyber-attacks from escalating further.
Your incident response plan should cover the main phases of a cyber-attack, including preparation, identification, eradication, containment, recovery, and lesson learned. After you’ve developed your plan, there’s a clear need to test it extensively to ensure it will work in case of a breach. Testing the plan is essential because it helps point out areas of improvement for it to be perfect.
4. Training Employees
Another vital aspect to incorporate into your cybersecurity plan is the frequent training of the employees. As specialists say, ‘you’re as strong as your weakest team member in their weakest moment.’ Conducting frequent training for your employees helps them keep up with the current changes in technology, trends, and threats. This is the best way to protect your business or company from malicious cyber-attacks.
5. Finding Smart Solutions
Various software and tools can help keep your business safe. Finding these tools should be part of your cybersecurity plan. When selecting the right tools, focus on application security, network security, endpoint security, cloud system, and storage security to reduce your vulnerability. Some of these tools to adopt include: Solar winds security event manager, Syxsense, intruder, Acunetix, Netsparker, Vipre, Mimecast, Bluvector, system mechanic ultimate defense, BitDefender total security, Malwarebytes, Apiiro, among others.
Conclusion
There you have it! Developing and implementing a cybersecurity plan can be challenging. The above tips can help you start the process and ensure your business is more secure. If there’s anything on the list above that your business isn’t currently doing, we recommend adopting it into your plan for enhanced cybersecurity.
