The world of digital risk can be a scary place. Horrors lurk around every corner, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on an unsuspecting business and deploy malware, steal data and unleash other terrible attacks. These scenarios are a very real danger for every business and are every IT professional’s nightmare. However, there are precautions that businesses can take if they want to slay the cybersecurity monsters. By making the right security moves to dodge pitfalls and avoid cybercriminal traps, IT professionals can help their companies protect their systems and data.

13 Monster-Hunting Tips:

Defeating is no easy feat, but these 13 tips can help IT professionals ensure their organization avoids the pit instead of becoming monster chow:

1. Review your entire security buildout with an expert to make sure you’re not missing anything. Even the smallest crack in your defence is big enough for cybercrime to slip through.
2. Prioritize building a strong cybersecurity culture. When everyone feels like they are part of the security team, everyone will be more inclined to do their part to spot and stop threats like phishing.
3. Implement identity and access management (IAM) that includes two-factor authentication (2FA) and single sign-on for every user to prevent a phished or stolen password from doing harm in the wrong hands.
4. Establish a strong password policy that discourages the reuse and recycling of passwords and encourages using a password manager instead of sticky notes.
5. Run a comprehensive security awareness training program and make sure that everyone knows that training is serious business, even execs who may not think they have to do it too.
6. Communicate clearly that no one will be fired for reporting a potential security incident immediately, and that it is okay to ask for help about security topics without being penalized.
7. Never use security awareness training as a punishment for employees who make security mistakes, or single out people in meetings or emails who have made errors.
8. Make security part of the onboarding process to familiarize employees with security policies and procedures and the offboarding process to ensure zombie accounts don’t come back to bite the company later.
9. Emphasize to employees that they should never, ever share their passwords with anyone else (even someone in the company) or store their passwords unsafely.
10. Utilize dark web monitoring to prevent nasty surprises like compromised credentials from haunting your company.
11. Employ security automation whenever possible to lower incident response times and reduce alert fatigue for the security team while lowering security and incident costs.
12. Make sure that everyone from the interns to the C-suite knows how to handle email safely and how to inform the correct people if they have a question or problem.
13. Create and test incident response plans for cyberattacks to improve incident response time, reduce cost and make sure that everyone is on the same page if the worst happens.

Unfortunately, every business is facing increasing danger from a wide variety of eldritch cybersecurity horrors every day, and that risk just keeps on growing. Waiting until the bogeyman arrives at your doorstep may be a fast track to disaster but taking sensible precautions against trouble can give you a chance to save your data and your sanity. Just one data breach or cyberattack can quickly drain the life out of a company’s bank account. The cost of a data breach in 2022 is $4.35 million, an increase of 2.6% from the 2021 cost of $4.2 million per incident.

Preparation is the magic bullet that helps businesses defeat the cybercrime horrors that lurk around every corner. By taking sensible steps to bolster security, you increase the company’s cyber resilience which lets everyone sleep a little easier at night.

Don’t join the ranks of companies that refuse to see the danger and live to regret it!

Source: ID Agent