Christmas is a time for relaxation, celebrations and … cybercrime. Bad actors around the globe are eagerly preparing to invade digital spaces and take advantage of the season of giving. To help you protect your business over Christmas and get the New Year off on the right foot, here are some tips to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
As businesses wind-down for Christmas, the festive period becomes a real feast for cybercriminals. With much of the workforce being out of office, it presents a prime opportunity for cybercriminals to buy more time and poke around in your undetected systems.
So, what can you do to keep your business and employees safe and secure this Christmas? Check out our top tips to beef up your cybersecurity posture during the high-risk holiday season.
Keep On Top of Training
As research from The World Economic Forum shows, 95% of cybersecurity incidents can be traced back to human error. Employees often engage in activities that compromise security, such as clicking on malicious links, falling for phishing scams, or mishandling sensitive information, without intending to put your business to risk. With new threats emerging all the time, it is vital that your employees know what to look out for. To be truly prepared for a security breach, user education and awareness training, starting at the employee onboarding followed by an official cybersecurity training plan, are vital.
Enable Multi-Factor Authentication
Passwords get stolen or leaked, no matter what safeguards your organisation may use. Having a strategy in place to stay ahead of bad actors is the key to success. Multi-factor authentication, for example, will challenge anyone who tries to use your password to provide a secondary authentication factor, such as a security code, phone call or push notification in a mobile app. So, even when a malicious actor has gained access to your password, they will still not be able to breach your account.
Adopt a Zero-Trust Framework
Where the traditional approach to cybersecurity often falls short when it comes to protecting an organisation’s data, applications and software in cloud environments, a Zero Trust model is built to allow secure remote access needed to enhance the benefits of this digital era. By changing the concept of perimeter from one based on location to one based on identity and access, all users, inside and outside your perimeter, need to authenticate and authorise when wanting access to your corporate resources. With user and device access being subject to sophisticated identity access solutions, you maximise the business value of your data while minimising security and compliance risks. A double-win.
Zero Trust changes the concept of perimeter from one based on location to one based on identity and access. By having all users, inside or outside of your perimeter, authenticate and authorise when wanting access to a corporate resource, you protect your organisation in ways other models can’t. Stopping malware from entering your network, giving hybrid workers more protection without affecting productivity, simplifying management with enhanced automation and increasing visibility into potential threats, check!
Work Proactively, Not Reactively
Don’t wait until a malicious actor finds a vulnerability to exploit your infrastructure and applications, stay ahead by taking a proactive approach to cybersecurity. Threat hunting, penetration testing, patch management, and proactive network and endpoint monitoring are great ways to prevent an attack before it takes place.
Always Have Backup Plan
Although a cyber breach is most certainly not on your Christmas list, it is important to prepare for the worst-case scenario. While you may have measures in place to prevent a cyber-attack from happening how thoroughly you respond to a breach can often mean the difference between a minor or critical disruption. To minimise business downtime and critical data loss, a tried and tested incident recovery plan is essential.
How CWSI can Help?
At CWSI we are a the leading Cyber Security Services company in Europe. As an experienced security experts, we have the knowledge and expertise to identify, test and deploy the right security solutions to help your organisation thrive. Contact us for more details on how we can support your business.
