Tips for Protecting Your Business from Cybercrime

With the yearly cost of cybercrime in the millions and the average number of security breaches on the rise, if keeping your organization secure isn’t near the top of your priority list, it’s time to think again. Here are some tips for protecting your organization from falling victim to cybercrime.

Offer Ongoing Training and Reminders 

When it comes to cybercrime, humans tend to be the weakest link. It’s important that you offer consistent trainings and reminders in order to keep your staff well informed and on the lookout for threats. You might even consider prioritizing cybersecurity skills and awareness in your hiring process in order to build a team that is better able to protect your organization against cybercrime.

Here are some great reminders to give your team, when it comes to recognizing the social engineering tactics employed by many cybercriminals in order to obtain sensitive information:

  • Emphasize a “Think Before You Click” policy – Encourage your employees to double-check for suspicious email content before following any embedded links or downloading any attachments.
  • Educate employees about the marks of a typical phishing email – Phishing emails often appear to originate from a high-level executive and generally ask for sensitive information to be emailed or uploaded.
  • Encourage the practice of seeking verbal confirmation – Urge your employees to confirm email asking for sensitive data in person or via phone call in order to verify the authenticity of the requests.

Control Access to Data

Within your organization, it’s best to compartmentalize data access as much as possible. Only give employees access to what they need. Here are some examples:

  • After configuring employee devices, disable any unnecessary access permissions that can leave your data exposed.
  • Limit communications to secure channels, and also limit the total amount of information stored on devices.
  • Never store sensitive data in plain text.

Keep Your Systems and Devices Up-to-Date

It can be frustrating to pause your day in order to allow your computer or other devices to download and install updates. That said, these updates often contain key security upgrades. It’s important to emphasize a policy of checking regularly for updates, and installing them as soon as they are available.

Have an Incident Plan in Place

In the unfortunate event that your organization suffers a data breach, it’s important to have a solid plan in place to guide you through the incident. Be sure to consult all key members of your organization in order to create a well-rounded response plan. If you don’t feel confident in your ability to create an incident plan internally, consider consulting an outside expert.