Whether you are a business owner, manager or elected leader, cyber security is now part of your portfolio of things that keep you up at night. If not, WAKE UP! Because it should.
Here are some high-level tips that will help you protect your organization from cyber attack:
1 – Phishing Training – While you cannot stop phishing attempts against your organization (any more than you can stop those robo-calls trying to extend your car warranty), what you can do is stop your employees from clicking on them by training them on what to look for. Continuous security training is key to strengthening your security.
2 – Pen Testing – Just like a basketball team will test their defense, you must run periodic penetration tests to evaluate the strength of your system and identify where your defense is weak. Only then will you have strong enough security to protect your system.
3 – Backups – In order to ensure that your organization can continue to operate in the event of an attack, you should keep frequent backups (more than one) of your sensitive data as well as the operational systems. The shorter the downtime and higher the assurance that your data is not lost, the quicker your organization can recover and the less expensive it will be. In some instances this can mean the difference between staying in business or closing your doors for good. 4 – Cyber Insurance – While cyber insurance will not prevent an attack, it will help to offset costs incurred if there is an attack. Costs may include losses due to the attack, downtime, and recovery. Additionally, most insurance companies require a minimum level of cyber security practices to be in place prior to an attack in order for the claim to be paid. In this way, cyber insurance CAN help to prevent an attack