If the answer is no, then you could be heading for disaster. After all, when your IT systems go down you can risk delays, cost increases, and even data loss or theft. That is why every business large or small needs to use the following cybersecurity measures. Read on to find out what they are.
Proactive IT Monitoring
First, you will need to ensure a proactive approach to IT monitoring. That means instead of just fixing things when they go wrong, you should actively watch for signs of potential problems and deal with them before they develop into major issues.
The primary way to do this is to ensure that you have proper IT system monitoring. Setting up the most effective and compliant monitoring system can be a challenge, especially for those who are not IT experts. That is why many businesses rely on services such as Outsourced IT that offer third-party IT management services including monitoring as well as maintenance checks and backups. They can even set up security software that will prevent viruses and malware from getting into your system 24/7.
Managing Users
Few IT systems are autonomous and that means that you must always consider the impact that users can have. Indeed, users are often seen as one of the biggest threats to cybersecurity because they can be unpredictable. That is why it makes sense to invest in managing your users properly.
One way to do this is to make sure that there are different levels of privileges for different types of users. For example, in a sales office, a sales manager may have top priority privileges which means they can access and change plans and databases. While a salesperson may have fewer privileges only allowing them to update the notes of a contact. The benefit of this is it keeps more important data more secure because there are only a few people company-wide that can access it.
Another important aspect of managing users is to make sure you provide all the info and education they need to behave in a secure manner. This means teaching them about things like how to spot a phishing email, not using removable media like memory sticks for work, and only ever conducting work business over a secure network. Indeed, using an unsecured network can be a major cyber security breach, as it allows people to ‘overhear’ the data being transmitted which can be sensitive to your business and/or clients.
Have Processes in Place for When Cybersecurity Breaches Do Occur
While doing the above will limit the number of cybersecurity breaches your business will encounter, they can happen anyway. That is why it’s vital that you have robust policies in place to deal with them when they do. Ideally, you need to have a step-by-step guide on what to do in the case of a range of cybersecurity incidents, as this will not only help you minimize their impact but demonstrate to stakeholders and customers that their data and interests are in safe hands.
