How to Protect Your Business from the Latest Cyber Threats

Cyber security has become a major talking point in 2024, whether it’s phishing attacks, ransomware, data breaches, or insider threats, cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated in their tactics. Protecting your business from these evolving threats is essential to maintaining your reputation, safeguarding sensitive data, and ensuring uninterrupted operations.

Cyber criminals often target smaller businesses due to the perception that they have weaker defences. Subsequently, in this week’s newsletter we look at ways in which you can prevent attacks and how a solution like PiBlu’s Elite Cyber Security, Monitoring and Protection Solution (Cyberlite) can provide everything your business needs to stay protected.

Implement Cyber Security Training for Employees

Your employees are often the first line of defence against cyber threats. A single click on a malicious link or downloading an infected attachment can lead to a significant security breach. Regular cyber security training is essential to equip your staff with the knowledge to recognise phishing attempts, social engineering tactics, and other common cyber threats.

Adopt Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to secure access to sensitive systems. MFA adds an extra layer of protection by requiring two or more verification methods — something you know (password), something you have (phone or hardware token), or something you are (biometric identification).

Even if a hacker manages to obtain a user’s password, MFA ensures that unauthorised access is still blocked.

Keep Software and Systems Up to Date

Cyber criminals exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software, hardware, and operating systems. Keeping everything updated is one of the best ways to avoid becoming a target of attacks.

Encrypt Your Data

Encrypting sensitive data, both in transit and at rest, provides another barrier to attackers.

Regular Backups and Disaster Recovery Planning

One of the most disruptive threats to a business is ransomware, where hackers encrypt your data and demand a ransom for its release. Having regular backups and a disaster recovery plan ensures that your business can recover quickly from such an attack.

Work with a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)

For SMEs that don’t have dedicated IT security teams, working with a trusted Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) like PiBlu is an excellent way to bolster your defence.

For example, our Cyberlite all in one solution provides virus protection, ransomware detection, endpoint detection and full monitoring of your IT systems. It provides you with everything your business needs to stay protected, before an incident occurs. It can also help you meet the requirements of Cyber Essentials Certification for your business.

The solution assists with the following:

RMM Ransomware Detection

Proactive and constant network security monitoring, intrusion detection, and advanced threat management. It complements other endpoint security applications such as antivirus packages to provide an extra layer of security and helps reduce the impact of a ransomware attack.

1. Immediate notification when ransomware is detected – instead of waiting for one of your employees to report the issue, our support technicians will be automatically notified the moment your files start being encrypted by ransomware.
2. Quarantine the infected device to prevent the spread of ransomware – once ransomware is detected, we can automatically isolate the impacted device from the rest of the network.
3. Recover quickly – devices automatically isolated from the network still maintain contact with technicians so we can help you quickly restore the impacted device to a previous state.

Endpoint Detection and Response

A powerful tool that continuously monitors devices to detect and respond to cyber threats like ransomware and malware. EDR’s advanced threat detection and response go beyond mere protection by providing:

1. Continuous monitoring for malicious and suspicious activities – going beyond traditional antivirus by identifying malware infections, unauthorised access attempts, unusual behaviour patterns, fileless malware and ransomware. Upon detection, the EDR system automatically terminates malicious activities and isolates infected endpoints to prevent further spread.
2. Threat intelligence and analysis – investigates previously unknown and suspicious malware samples. This ensures the EDR system is always up to date and equipped to protect against the latest threats and evolving attack techniques.
3. Swift incident response and remediation – when a threat is detected, your IT team can quickly analyse the incident, identify the scope and take immediate action to minimise downtime and reduce potential losses.
4. Compliance and data protection – assists in meeting regulatory compliance requirements by providing necessary security controls, incident response capabilities and data protection measures.

Conclusion

Cyber security is not a one-time task but an ongoing effort to protect your business from evolving threats. By implementing a multi-layered defence strategy and working with an MSSP, your business can reduce the risk of falling victim to cyber criminals.

The cost of prevention is always less than the cost of a breach.

Need Assistance?

Please get in touch to find out more by emailing info@piblu.co.uk or calling us on 0161 388 8188. As experts in cyber security, we are here to discuss any questions you may have.