Cybersecurity has become necessary for digital businesses, as the large volume of online transactions is the main reason criminals target them. Occasionally, these businesses might not be well equipped to mitigate the risk of a cyberattack and require cybersecurity practices like IAM solutions.
Fitch Ratings has warned all businesses and organizations regarding the growth of cyber risks that accompanied the Russian-Ukrainian War. Therefore, businesses must take precautionary measures to protect themselves as online transactions continue to become essential.
Best Practices To Increase Cybersecurity
Here are three best practices you should consider to increase the cybersecurity of your digital business.
Implementing The Zero Trust Paradigm
The Zero Trust paradigm ensures that all users, devices, and networks are always authenticated before granting access to company resources. Zero Trust is a suitable approach for digital businesses that rely heavily on hybrid or remote working and want to maintain the security of their devices and network.
You can use the following tactics to increase your cybersecurity:
- Introducing MFA
Hackers use compromised accounts in a bid to gain access to company resources. You can enable Multi-Factor Authentication to make it difficult for hackers to access your cloud resources without answering additional questions. - Validating devices before granting access
You should implement effective device identity and security that helps you validate all devices systematically and grant access. Since the system knows which devices regularly request access, it will immediately detect an unrecognized device and restrict access. - Minimizing access to data
With the Zero Trust Paradigm, your employees will only get the access they need for their daily tasks. The least access privilege reduces the attack radius and contains any data breaches if they occur. - Adopting micro-segmentation
Storing data in numerous micro-segments will help prevent the lateral movement of computer viruses or ransomware.
Implementing Suitable Technology To Adopt Zero Trust Principles
Certain technologies support the Zero Trust approach, and you should consider deploying them to improve your business’s security posture.
- SASE
Secure Access Service Edge acts as a unified network and security solution for digital businesses that rely on various network components like SD-WAN, Carriers, edge devices, etc. - ZTNA
Zero Trust Network Access acts as a cybersecurity solution that is always active in the background and conducts constant verification of users and devices to allow access to company resources. - SWG
Secure Web Gateway helps businesses protect themselves from internet-based cyber attacks with URL filtering and malicious code detection. - SDP
Unlike VPN, Software Defined Perimeter is a newer generation tool that cloaks the network, allows micro-segmentation and ensures the least access privilege to company resources.
Increasing Cybersecurity Awareness Within The Business
The biggest reason for data leaks within a business is employees making personal mistakes and not securing their accounts. Data breaches are attributed to the rise in remote or hybrid workplaces, as employees commonly use insecure devices and networks. Even when this is a small mistake, it makes them an easy target.
Therefore, you must educate your employees to realize their mistakes and take steps to enhance the company’s cybersecurity posture. Here are some common issues you should look out for:
- Opening unknown emails
The most common mistake employees make is opening unsolicited emails from unknown senders. Hackers use malicious mails for phishing and hacking less secure devices to steal company information. All employees in a business should receive regular training to increase their cybersecurity awareness and help identify phishing emails. - Using weak passwords
Hackers are notorious for using sophisticated methods to crack passwords. If an employee uses a less secure password, a hacker can crack their password in less than a second. You need to educate your employees to have at least 12 characters in their password, which needs to be a combination of numbers, symbols, and letters. - Increasing Wi-Fi security
Cybercriminals use wireless sniffing softwares to extract data and transactions every time an employee uses insecure public access points. Therefore, you should educate your employees never to use public Wi-Fi, especially when working with sensitive data.
You may even let some of your employees take a cyber security course online to upskill them as cybersecurity professionals.
What Makes Cybersecurity Important For Businesses?
Businesses constantly add diverse talent to make their remote workforce productive, reach customers, and generate sales. This can improve productivity but makes the business more susceptible to cyberattacks. To tackle this, you can add cybersecurity techniques to your business that will assist your teams in prioritizing data security and ensuring business continuity. Cybersecurity is your ticket to growth; the satisfaction of being protected by your own policies and networks will let you accomplish tasks without worrying about data security.
Governments have also stepped up their regulations to combat cybercrime; for instance, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is regarded as the world’s toughest security and privacy law. Even when the European Union has drafted and passed GDPR, it imposes obligations to organizations worldwide, as long as they collect data from people living in the EU.
GDPR implies that organizations must start:
- Communicating data breaches
- Appointing a data protection officer
- Requiring user consent to process information
- Anonymizing data for privacy
The EU is maintaining its firm stance on data privacy with GDPR, even when more people entrust their personal data to cloud services while data breaches are on the rise.
Conclusion
Digital businesses should not disregard the need for cybersecurity as they continue to conduct their daily transactions. The simplest way is to keep their data encrypted during transit to ensure its protection from hackers scanning their networks. Even with numerous regulations approved by world governments, businesses must take it upon themselves to keep their data secure. Adopting the Zero Trust model allows you to continuously authenticate and authorize users with the least access privilege.
