5 Best Cyber Security Practices For Business

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Introduction: -

Are you aware that Cyber Criminals can penetrate 93% of the enterprise networks on this earth? According to the 2021 Data Breach Report published by the Identity Theft Resource Center. 2021 will go down in history as the watershed moment when the world officially entered the age of identity fraud, from the age of identity theft and the misuse of mass amounts of data.

Businesses of any size and location can use the internet to connect with new and larger markets, and they can do so in a more productive manner by utilising computer-based technologies. Cybersecurity must be considered whenever a company makes a technological decision, whether it will use cloud computing or stick to using email and keeping a website.

It isn’t easy to maintain security against cyberattacks. When cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to expose security flaws, it isn’t easy to stay one step ahead of them. However, paying attention to critical aspects can significantly lower your risk of falling victim to one of these malicious cyber-attacks.

A company's data is a precious asset that needs to be safeguarded. Everyone in the company is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the company's data, regardless of size or scale. "Cybersecurity" is the technology of defending computers, servers, networks, electronic systems, mobile phones, and other devices from malicious attacks.

Businesses are increasing the amount of money they spend on cybersecurity to lower the risk of a data breach. A cyber-attack can originate from anywhere, including within your organisation or from a third party outside of it.

However, it should be ensured that your data is secure? How can you identify potential dangers in time to save your data from being lost? We believe that preventing something rather than treating it is the better option. The question now is, what exactly constitutes the best practices in cybersecurity for businesses? The answers will unfold in the upcoming sections.

Creating Awareness Around Cyber Security

The first step is to establish clear and transparent communication with every one of your workers and then educate them on potential cybersecurity risks and the countermeasures that can help to address those risks. People can potentially be your most significant security risk or your most reliable security defence.

Because hackers frequently use people as an entry point, it is no longer sufficient to approach cybersecurity with a focus solely on technology if one wishes to guarantee complete protection in today’s world of enhanced digital interactions. For this reason, the most effective method for reducing human-related risks is taking a strategy focusing on people.

Minimising Employee Negligence and educating your workforce on why it is critical to adhere to cybersecurity guidelines is a failproof method for addressing employee carelessness and security lapses. According to the Ponemon report, 62% of insider data breaches were a result of negligence and errors caused by employees.

Educating the employees about Phishing will help to circumvent malicious cyber activity. Phishing is a very common approach that cybercriminals use to either obtain credentials from employees, infect an organisation’s network with malware, or acquire employees' sensitive financial data. To avoid such attacks, two simple ways can help, as shown below:

More detailed information can be gathered about Phishing on the US-CERT portal.

Please ensure that your training courses for employees cover all aspects of the risks to your company's cybersecurity, including Phishing, malware, and working remotely. To have a strategy that is centred on people, you need to make sure that it not only involves increasing the level of awareness of your employees but also includes efficient access management entailing the principle of least privilege.

Fortify the access to critical assets

Detailed analysis must be done entailing how many people within your organisation have access to the most critical data, when are they allowed to access it, and in what ways can they do so? Suppose you don't know the specific responses to these questions. In that case, it's high time to review your access management practices, especially considering recent paradigm shift that has taken place globally.

Regulate The Access from Remote Devices - According to the 2021 BYOD Security Report compiled by Bitglass, 82% of the 271 businesses polled in April 2021 have successfully implemented a Bring Your Device (BYOD) strategy. Meanwhile, worries about safety rank among the most significant obstacles to the widespread use of bring-your-own-device policies.

It is essential to secure access to your sensitive data from any location and device. There has never been a time when remote workers and employees using their own devices have played a significant role in an organisation’s security as they do in the modern era.

As a cybersecurity leader of the organisation, you can take the following steps to prevent any possible breaches:

1. Providing employees with security training to reduce the risks associated with the new approach of allowing them to work remotely. Educate them to ensure they do not grant anyone else access to their computers or company information. In addition, workers should be aware of the significance of ensuring the security of their respective workplaces and cutting off access to the company network.

2. It is imperative to have a comprehensive technical solution that will monitor user activity and secure access to vital assets for all users who require it, regardless of where they are. Enabling virtual private network (VPN) services for the members of your workforce who work remotely is another wise decision. However, exercise caution because there is a possibility that some VPN services are not secure.

It does not matter whether your employees work on-premises, work from home, or bring their own devices — you need to make their sessions fully visible to prevent malicious intentions or negligence. Although new technologies make visibility possible, it is essential not to overlook employees’ security knowledge.

Password Management & Security - In 2021, the Compilation of Many Breaches, an online hacking forum, published 3.27 billion credential pairs. This was the most significant online leak of email addresses and passwords that has ever occurred. This public database contains passwords exposed in previous data breaches involving services such as LinkedIn, Netflix, Bitcoin, and Exploit.in, Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail, amongst others. The Compilation of Many Breaches highlights the significance of having a password management system and switching passwords regularly.

Cybercriminals are consistently planning to gain access to your sensitive data and valuable business information. They will go to great lengths to obtain access to privileged accounts because these accounts are like gems to them. Management of passwords is an essential component of corporate security, particularly regarding privileged access management (PAM).

Utilising specialised tools, such as password vaults and PAM solutions, is the most effective method for ensuring that adequate security is maintained. By doing things in this manner, not only can you stop unauthorised users from accessing privileged accounts, but you can also make password management easier for employees.

The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center have developed a list of guidelines for selecting and securing robust passwords, which can be found in their latest cybersecurity recommendations.

Privileged access management is a comprehensive method that can protect access and monitor sessions of privileged users while also enabling automatic password rotation and, as a result, simplifying work with credentials. This is important for the security of a company.

Deploy The Principle of Least Privilege – According to research conducted by Verizon on the reasons for data breaches, it has concluded that “Privilege Misuse” is the most significant contributor.

When a new employee is hired, granting them all the privileges irrespective of whether they need them or not can prove risky. This will allow them to access sensitive data even if they do not require access. Such an arrangement raises the possibility of attacks from within the company. It gives hackers unwarranted access to sensitive information when a single employee account is breached. It is advised to apply the principle of least privilege (POLP) which is a significantly better solution than any other alternative.

When you protect access to your most critical systems, you know who intends to gain access to those systems, when that access takes place and for what reason. Regular employees would benefit from understanding the fundamentals underlying the generation of passwords for online accounts.

However, with comprehensive access management solutions, you can manage passwords in an automated fashion and safeguard access to more critical corporate resources. You can make every user's action in the cloud visible to other users. You must keep a close eye on privileged users and third-party vendors when applying the principle of least privilege.

Safeguarding and Securing Corporate Data

Religiously backing up your business data and carefully monitoring all activity connected to critical resources, accompanied by timely notifications and detailed reports, are two methods that can be utilised to ensure the security of your organisation’s information. You can lessen the likelihood of your data being stolen as a result, due to security compromises or simply going missing.

Managing the Privileged Users - Users with administrative privileges have access to all the tools and resources required to steal sensitive data from within the organisation. Even if you have complete faith in your users and know that they do not have ulterior motives, it is still possible for them to inadvertently cause a leak in your system or for hackers to gain access to their accounts.

On the one hand, exercising control over the users and accounts that have access to sensitive data is necessary. As a Cyber Security Practitioner It is also essential to monitor the activity of these users to prevent threats. The below picture can help you efficiently take control of the situation.

Closely Monitor Third-Party Access – Users such as vendors, partners, and contractors, are referred to as third-party actors and have the potential to be simple victims in the event of a supply chain attack. Since 2017, the number of businesses that have disrupted their supply chains from attacks by third parties has increased almost five times. A report published by the ITRC has substantiated it.

Monitoring the activities of third parties is an excellent way to protect your sensitive data from being compromised due to breaches caused by partners' access to it. User activity monitoring and recording should be used to provide full logging of all user actions so that you can detect malicious activity and carry out audits and investigations when they are required.

Access granted to third parties not only exposes your system to a greater possibility of being compromised by attacks launched from within but also makes it easier for malicious software and outside hackers to access your network. It becomes imperative to resort to such measures that will limit their access.

Regularly Back Up Critical Data - One of the best practices in information security that has found traction over the past few years is the act of periodically backing up mission-critical data. If you only store your data in one location, you leave yourself open to experiencing any possible data loss. Data can be lost due to variety of reasons, including the malfunction of hardware, the compromise of cloud storage, the accidental deletion of data, and others.

Please make sure that your backups are protected in every possible way, that they are encrypted, and that they are frequently updated. To protect against dangers that may come from within the organisation, delegating backup responsibilities to multiple people is essential.

Having a solid backup plan also means that you are resilient in the event of an accident. It is suggested not to rely completely on online backups, and you should also avoid using the same passwords for your production environment and backups. Instead, store your backups on endpoints that are not connected to the network and manage privileged access to those endpoints.

Deploy A Robust Cyber Security Framework and Network

Customise A Hierarchical Cyber Security Policy - There is no justification for having a cumbersome and complicated infrastructure that makes your operations more time-consuming, regardless of the number of devices, applications, and servers you use.

First, Formulate and document a written policy that is a formal guide to all cybersecurity measures used in your company. It enables your security specialists and employees to be on the same page and provides a means of enforcing rules that safeguard your data.

Nevertheless, the workflow of each department is distinct, and it is straightforward for unnecessary cybersecurity methods and measures to cause disruptions in that workflow.

Second, although a centralised security policy can be helpful as a basic guideline for the entire company, it shouldn't cover every process in every department. This is because it would be impossible to implement and enforce. Instead, you should give your departments the freedom to develop their security policies based on the overarching policy.

Establishing a hierarchical structure for your security policies can confer many advantages on your organisation. When you do this, you consider each department’s requirements, ensuring that the integrity of neither their workflows nor your bottom line is jeopardised in the name of security.

Periodic and Consistent Audits - It is imperative to promptly analyse any unusual actions or movements carried out by your employees, privileged users, or third-party vendors to respond to unexpected incidents promptly. The thoroughness of the data gleaned from the audit log, session records, and metadata determines an audit’s quality. This information can be gathered in a variety of ways and can be found in a variety of places.

Server logs can provide an organisation up to 40% of the data it needs regarding users and their activities. They receive an additional 30% of their data through analytics based on user and entity behaviour (UEBA).

You can obtain information about the activities of end users and privileged users by consulting detailed security logs. This information may include metadata, screenshots, and other specifics.

You can conduct root cause analysis for a security incident and identify weak points in your cybersecurity with the help of this information.

Your audits can be completed much more quickly and easily with automated reports on specific categories of actions, incidents, and users, amongst other things.

Effective And Efficient Identity Management

When it comes to safeguarding the logins and credentials of your users, you should not only take precautions to ensure the confidentiality of their passwords but also implement multi-factor authentication and biometric security measures. It will be beneficial if you also ensure that only users who have been granted the necessary permissions can gain access to your essential assets.

Biometrics - Using biometrics allows for prompt authentication of users while facilitating secure access management and accurate employee monitoring.

The use of gait analysis, voice recognition, fingerprint scans, palm and behavioural biometrics, and facial recognition are all excellent options for determining whether or not users are who they say they are. Your company must conduct identity checks on users before granting them access to sensitive information or valuable assets.

Compared to passwords and text message verification, the authentication provided by biometrics is significantly more reliable. Because of this, biometrics has already established itself as a necessary component of multi-factor authentication.

Nevertheless, authentication isn't the only application for biometrics to be used in. Security officers have access to a wide variety of biometrics-driven tools that make it possible for them to detect compromised privileged accounts in real-time.

Analysis of a user's behaviour when interacting with input devices is carried out by behavioural biometrics. A tool will alert the security officers to take immediate action if abnormal behaviour is identified, and it will do so by sending a warning signal to them.

Multi-Factor Authentication - With multi-factor authentication (MFA), you can protect sensitive data by adding a layer of security, thereby reducing the likelihood that malicious actors will be able to log in using your credentials.

Considering the fact that hackers have compromised your password, they would still need a second and possibly even a third "factor" of authentication, including a security token, your mobile phone, your fingerprint, your voice, or even your voiceprint.

Even though it is a relatively simple implementation, multi-factor authentication (MFA) still has a place among the most effective practices for cybersecurity. Because of its efficiency, major technology companies such as Google and Twitter encourage users to switch to using it.

Additionally, one of the Microsoft Security managers has stated that using multi-factor authentication means a user account is protected from attempts to hack it to a greater extent than 99.9 per cent of the time.

MFA gives you the added benefit of differentiating between different users of shared accounts, which improves your ability to control who has access to certain information.

Concluding Remarks

As is evident, different best practices relating to information security are connected.

The onus lies with you as a decision maker to decide what should be included in your cybersecurity policy and employee guidelines. DivIHN Inc. Cyber Security practice offers robust solutions for your cyber risk management needs with proven success stories with the federal government and businesses of repute. To know more, please get in touch with sgovilkar@divihn.com.