There are many risks involved with running a business, but few risks are able to cause as much damage as a cyberattack. In fact, the average cost of a cyberattack is about $4.24 million, according to a report from IBM. This cost is the result of a number of factors, like regulatory fines, increased insurance premiums, lost business, and legal fines. Knowing how detrimental cybercrime can be for your organization, it pays to do whatever you can to prevent and defend against cyberthreats.
End User Cybersecurity Tips You Can Use To Protect Your Business
From ransomware to Trojan viruses, cyberthreats are as diverse as they are numerous. How do you protect your company from such dangers? While it may seem like a daunting task, it’s not impossible. By implementing a few end user cybersecurity best practices, you can fend off most types of attacks.
If you want to keep your IT infrastructure safe from cyberthreats, but don’t know how to maintain network security, we have you covered. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best cybersecurity tips you can use to boost your end user cybersecurity. Here’s what you need to know:
1. Create an Employee Cybersecurity Policy
Throughout the average business day, your employees are going to interact with the internet in a variety of ways. This could include visiting a website, sending or receiving email, or using the cloud to access documents. Every time your staff interacts with the internet, it creates an opening for a cyberthreat.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that certain actions are far riskier than others. For example, clicking on suspicious websites or downloading a file attachment without checking it first. To prevent risky situations that are easily avoidable, establish an end user cybersecurity policy your staff must follow.
When you create cybersecurity policies, try to make them as clear, detailed, and understandable as possible. The more straightforward your standards are, the less likely your employees are to make mistakes.
2. Perform a Risk Assessment
Hackers invade your network by finding security gaps in your infrastructure. One of the easiest ways to fix network vulnerability is to perform a comprehensive risk assessment. You can perform one on your own or you can have an experienced end user cybersecurity expert, like BL King, conduct one for you.
In a risk assessment, a cybersecurity expert evaluates your IT infrastructure for vulnerabilities. If any weaknesses are found during the assessment, it’s documented and reported. Once the procedure is finished, the analyst shows you their findings and provides suggestions on what you can do to take corrective action.
3. Monitor Your Network
If ransomware manages to penetrate your firewalls, remember that the fight isn’t over yet. If you can catch it early enough, you can mitigate the danger and minimize the damage. If you want to catch malware before it has time to cause damage, you need network monitoring. This is a solution that allows you to monitor all activity on your network, both legitimate and abnormal.
With network monitoring, you can detect, quarantine, and boot the cyberthreat from your system. For network monitoring, businesses often rely on an end user cybersecurity provider. Once you partner with an expert, they can monitor your network. If there’s anything suspicious lurking there, your provider is alerted and they can take action.
4. Conduct a Penetration Test
A great way to improve your end user cybersecurity posture is to do a penetration test. Also known as a pentest, this is a threat remediation tactic where you coordinate an attack on your own infrastructure. It may sound counterintuitive, but it plays an important role in malware prevention.
The main goal here is to reveal cracks in your security so you can fix them before they can be exploited. There are a handful of penetration tests you should know about:
- White Box: The ethical hacker is given some information on the company’s security beforehand.
- Black Box: The hacker attacks the network without any data beforehand. This is also called a “blind test.”
- Covert: This is a test where only a small number of people are aware that a pentest is being performed. This is also known as a “double blind” test.
- External: An external test targets the external assets of the company, like the company’s public website.
- Internal: The hacker starts the pentest from inside the firewall.
5. Regularly Update Your Software
Cyberthreats are constantly evolving to find ways around security measures. However, no one understands the ins and outs of your software better than the developers who made it. If any security flaws are discovered in software, the developers usually release a fix in the form of a patch.
A patch is a packet of code designed to correct errors in the software. They are released to help your software stay ahead of the curve. As a result, it’s necessary to always keep your software up to date with the latest version. Waiting to update could increase the risk of your devices being hacked.
6. Educate Your Employees
Did you know that 95% of all cyber incidents are caused by human error? Your employees present one of the biggest risks to your company. For example, if even one member of your staff falls for a phishing scam, it could have organization-wide consequences. By providing ongoing training, you can teach your workforce about cyberthreats and how they can avoid them. You can even put their training to the test by performing simulated phishing attacks.
Improve the End User Cybersecurity of Your Business
BL King is your go-to managed security services provider (MSSP). We offer a comprehensive list of cybersecurity solutions to keep you protected from all types of cyberthreats. With us as your partner, you can rest easy knowing we have your back.
Contact us today to learn more.
