Top 5 Security Tips to Keep Your Organization Protected

 

Is your organization part of the 64 percent looking to revamp their security infrastructure?

Ensuring your organization is secure can be overwhelming. Here are five key areas of focus to help you minimize data security threats.

Create a Security Culture

Even with the most advanced technologies in place, untrained employees can leave an organization vulnerable to malicious attacks. Creating a culture around data security can help prevent breaches. To start, make security awareness training a mandatory event for employees. This training should not only show employees the different kinds of cyber and social engineering attacks, but how they can thwart attacks. Provide concrete examples of actual threats, set up a test/false attack to identify employee behaviors and then provide additional training.

Implement a Cybersecurity Policy

When was the last time your company reviewed its cybersecurity policy? Do you even have one?

Having a current cybersecurity policy in place is essential in minimizing your vulnerability to attacks. If you don’t have one in place, a good cybersecurity policy should cover the following:

• How to detect scams, such as phishing and other social engineering tactics.
• Guidelines on password management.
• Guidelines on proper internet usage.
• The standards for installing software updates and patches.
• Standards on how to keep sensitive data safe.

In addition to having a cybersecurity policy, communication is key. Develop a communication plan so your employees are educated and prepared to identify potential attacks.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

How you handle an outage, recover from it and prevent it from happening again are crucial factors for your organization. If your business depends on system uptime and availability to serve clients and drive sales, then just running a daily backup may no longer be enough. Many organizations are seeking multiple internet connections and automated failover solutions for critical applications to create redundancy and reliability within their network and infrastructure. Having a business continuity plan and the associated technology can significantly protect your bottom line.

Encrypt Your Data

Encrypting your data while in transit and at rest can help ensure your data is secure and protected. Encryption renders information unreadable when accessed without proper authorization. Having a process in place that ensures sensitive data is encrypted and that files and emails are being properly sent is imperative.

Create a Defense in Depth Approach

Defense in depth involves using different techniques and tools to create multiple layers of defense. For example, to properly secure your network construct a layered security approach through segmentation. Think of it like an onion: There are many layers that keep peeling back to eventually reveal the core (or your most sensitive data). Your organization’s systems should be restricted within their own layer, and access to each one should be limited based on job role. This ensures your most sensitive data is limited to fewer resources. A strong defense in depth approach should focus on people, processes and technology.

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