From various businesses, you’ll see the same needs over and over: they always want to expand their reach in the market, they always look for ways to be more efficient and cost-efficient, and they always need ways to protect their businesses against attacks. With the way that businesses depend on their data, their digital assets, and their access to the enterprise itself, it’s no wonder that security is such a big issue. It’s also no wonder that cybercriminals find enterprises to be prime targets for attacking.
But while cyber attacks are geared toward enterprise networks in various ways, there are also various ways to defend against such attacks. Whether it’s specific practices that need to be in place, or tools you can use to enhance your security strategy, you can always find a way to make your business a little more secure. With that in mind, there are some standard and crucial ways to better defend against any and all cyber threats. Read on to find the six most important methods of all!
Encrypted Storage
It may seem like a given in some circles, but the facts are that many businesses still don’t acknowledge the value of encrypted storage. Whether it’s owned media, passwords, business assets or client data, storing sensitive materials in a digital safe is a great idea. Encryption uses a unique key to turn everything protected by encryption into a codified copy that can only be decrypted, or decoded, by someone with the encryption key. This means that, in the case of encrypted storage, only those who have access to the digital safe would be able to access what’s inside, making encrypted storage incredibly useful for anyone with something to protect.
Threat Intelligence
Most people understand the importance of having basic tools like antivirus and firewalls in place for the protection of their computers, but not every security approach includes the use of threat intelligence. Threat intelligence, or the information gathered on cyber attacks and the behavioral trends of such attacks, is incredibly useful in predicting what may be a risk to your business and how to combat that risk. To implement threat intelligence successfully, you need a comprehensive threat intelligence platform that can consolidate the information found internally and out on the web to create a more holistic view of the threat landscape.
Threat Detection
In tandem with threat intelligence is the ability to detect threats. However, this should not be your job if you can help it. With the advent of so many smart threats out there, it only makes sense that your threat detection be a smart tool as well. EDR platforms are one such tool, and they can detect threats all over a network and act accordingly to isolate or even neutralize said threats. Even in the event of simple suspicious behavior, threat detection platforms like this will flag it for you, so that you can deal with it however is necessary. Keep in mind, too, that some great threat detection platforms are primed to use threat intelligence as a part of the detection protocol, making it that much smarter and more sophisticated a defense tactic.
Businesses need to realize that even the smallest vulnerabilities are more than enough for cybercriminals to gain an entry into your mainframe. Many businesses are guilty of being careless as far as maintaining their data is concerned. Once they do not have use for the same, they are not bothered about where it is stored and what are some potential damages that can be incurred if it gets into the wrong hands. Businesses need to make it a point to erase data safely so that it cannot be misused by competitors or cybercriminals that can have a field day with it.
Access Role Management
One age-old idea in security of all kinds is the idea of access role management: Even in the past, long before the digital age, only the most trusted people were given keys to an entire estate. Others had only keys that worked for the doors they needed to use, and that same principle is a basic, common tenet of cyber security today as well. Whether it’s through manual creation of such access each time, or whether you utilize a security platform to manage these roles centrally, you must always be sure you’re managing the access roles of all users on your network to ensure that certain assets are protected from those who are unvetted for that access. If someone doesn’t need a certain database or a certain workflow to complete their work, don’t let them access it. Instead, build a sensible hierarchy that handles permissions based on duties and levels of responsibility and trust within the enterprise body.
Basic Defense Tools
There’s no replacement for the basics, as well. In addition to the advanced tools and protocols, you should always be implementing firewalls, URL filters, email gateways, and antivirus software on your network as is necessary to protect you and your business. You should also be sure to exercise the common sense practice of updating these tools. Without updates, these tools meant to help you protect your network can actually serve as weakened entry points for cybercriminals. No matter what the tool is, having the most up-to-date version of it possible is tantamount to security success.
Security Training
Finally, you have to defend your enterprise network by training and educating your personnel on its use, on its security protocols, and on the things to watch out for in terms of existing threats. By keeping your team privy to risks, and by educating them on the proper actions to take in daily operations, you can ensure that your team is knowledgeable about what choices and what behaviors are best for the team. This also gives you a specific standard to abide by, making it all the harder for a teammate to deviate from what should be the accepted norm of your business’s environment. If your team can’t abide by this standard, then you know to look elsewhere. If your team does uphold the standard, though, you can be sure that your systems are safe in their hands, even when threats come knocking.