4 Things to Tick Off Your Basic Cybersecurity Hygiene Checklist

Cybersecurity is so much more than a way of saving money for wealthy companies.

Security analysts who improve their skills every day and protect companies also:

• Guard sensitive customer and employee data which, if leaked, could lead to identity theft
• Ensures that the people who are not responsible for security can resume their work and feel safe while doing so
• Allow the technology and its solutions to facilitate people’s lives without putting their information at risk while they use the service

Therefore, the main point of cybersecurity is to protect people and their data.

But there is a lot that needs to be done to provide continual protection. Where to even start?

With basic cybersecurity hygiene, of course.

Here, we go over four components that strengthen the security of a company in its weakest spots – including employee training, setting up the right foundation, keeping up with attack surface management, and file backups.

#1 Cybersecurity Training for Teams

Employee phishing and weak passwords are the most common ways hackers create the path that leads them into an organization.

The truth is most teams don’t have to be security experts, because threat actors normally target the unsuspected employees in the company.

They’re the ones that are most likely to unintentionally put the organization in danger by downloading malware hidden in an attachment in an email or reusing their password across multiple accounts.

Although cybersecurity solutions get better and more accurate every day, they still aren’t foolproof when it comes to preventing human errors. Many malicious emails don’t get filtered into spam either.

To fight that, businesses introduce cybersecurity training for all of their employees. It should teach them two things:

1. How to recognize a phishing attempt
2. How to set up a strong password

Phishing, or scamming a person by impersonating authority to urge an employee to send their password or click an infected link in the body of an email is common. In fact, one in 99 emails is a scam.

Phishing awareness training is essential because it teaches teams how to recognize the most common scams that exploit busy team members during their work day.

Following the training, they know how to recognize different types as well as not to click on attachments that are sent by an unknown sender.

Another crucial part of the training concerns passwords. As the scientist Clifford Stoll said: “Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.”

Many people still reuse their credentials for multiple accounts and rely on easily hackable passwords – consisting of less than 10 characters, personal information, and words listed in a dictionary.

#2 Set Up Suitable Protective Software

Strong, resilient, and comprehensive security consists of multiple solutions such as firewalls, antiviruses and antimalware. Cover the entire infrastructure and guard the company’s most important assets from cyber incidents.

The exact programs, tools, and protocols that are set to guard the infrastructure will vary from one organization to another.

Small businesses might have basic security and security teams of a couple of people.

As the company scales, both the infrastructure of the business and architecture consisting of versatile security solutions get more complex.

Besides the size of a company, the exact solutions that are used depend on where the company’s most important assets are.

For instance, sensitive data could be within the cloud and the company has to deploy measures that are designed for such environments – they should catch misconfigurations and attempts at unauthorized access.

Companies that have remote workers typically rely on Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and endpoint security for telecommuters’ home devices that are used for work.

But how do you know if the solutions that are supposed to guard the company truly work?

That’s what the solutions for managing all security points (anything that protects the company from tools to humans) are for.

#3 Maintain Attack Surface Management

Keeping up to date with all the changes in the company as the business grows, more employees join the network, and new technology is added can be challenging and overwhelming.

This is why companies that have complex multi-cloud infrastructures and lots of employees that are scattered all over the globe use security management solutions such as attack surface management.

Attack surface refers to any software that can be targeted by cybercriminals. It is constantly expanding as new tools are added and changed with any update. As such, it can have new vulnerabilities at any time.

The AI-powered solution is built to automatically and continually identify, analyze, and monitor the attack surface to warn the security teams of any new flaws that have to be fixed before it’s discovered by hackers.

What’s more, the tool is linked to MITRE ATT&CK Framework – a knowledge base that lists the latest hacking exploits. This keeps it up to date with new methods that could endanger the company’s most valuable assets.

#4 Back Up Your Files Regularly

Ransomware is the type of malware that encrypts documents to demand ransom in exchange for the key that unlocks access.

If it targeted your business, could your teams continue doing their work?

Having a plan according to which you regularly back up your most important files is essential.

In most cases, companies create at least three copies of important documents and store them in multiple places.

If the internet is down or hackers get to one place the data is saved, your teams should still be able to reach the critical documents.

Build Layered Security, Test it, Improve, and Repeat

Cybersecurity hygiene is all about maintenance – keeping your systems and employees ready and strengthening security every day.

The attack surface of the company can change in minutes.

Track the changes with automated tools such as attack surface management and make sure that you regularly back up files and add security solutions to guard the sensitive data and humans within and outside the company.