Business vulnerabilities have changed significantly over the last few years. Today’s challenges require IT providers to bring more tools to the table, implement more best practices, and put checks and balances in place to keep company information safe.
I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 common IT best practices and tools to keep your company safe.
1. Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (e.g., 2FA, MFA) is a secondary form of protection for accounts. It keeps your credentials safe from hackers.
The most common business services that can come upon an attack are online accounts like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. If a hacker has your username and password, they can get into all the accounts with the same credentials.
By setting up multi-factor authentication, you can stop hackers from getting into your account even if they have your username and password. The multi-factor authentication sends a message to your smartphone or other electronic device to authorize access.
This will help protect your system in case your credentials are leaked online, like when LinkedIn was hacked.
Protecting your business against security breaches is vital to keeping your company safe. BRITECITY can help with setting it up to provide another layer of protection across your network.
2. Cloud Backup & Disaster Recovery
When it comes to data loss, it’s not a matter of if, but when it will happen.
Many businesses rely on only one solution for their data backup. Microsoft Sharepoint, Dropbox, or Apple iCloud are the most commonly used, but they’re not the most reliable. We know of a local business that relied exclusively on a managed cloud service provider that was hacked and lost 15 years’ worth of data.
If you rely on a single service for data backup, make sure you know its limitations. Determine what happens if there’s a malicious attack on the system or if something goes wrong. No system is perfect, but any backup system with a single point of failure is a serious concern.
We recommend protecting yourself with a safety net of a third-party backup service. At BRITECITY, we use DropSuite, a cloud-based website, database backup, and monitoring service. It’s another layer of backup defense against permanently losing your data.
3. User Training & Awareness
Many companies are vulnerable to cyberattacks due to lack of user training and awareness. According to research, 94% of malicious attacks happen through email. It’s one of the easiest ways for hackers to get into your network.
Installing firewalls and antivirus software can protect against a wide range of threats, but it won’t safeguard against simple human error.
Anyone can set up a new Gmail account, research your company on LinkedIn, and send an email as a contact from a vendor company. They could request personal business information or ask for help with setting up a bank account. All it takes is one person to respond to that email and the damage is done.
Staff education and knowledge are the best defense. BRITECITY conducts regular user training and awareness programs, which involve sending phishing emails and conducting other types of cyberattacks on clients’ staff like requesting credentials. This special training prepares employees to ignore or defend against these types of attacks.
4. AI-Based Monitoring
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool that has benefited the cybersecurity space, as well as cybercriminals. No cybersecurity companies in Orange County can keep up with automated AI-based cyberattacks. The solution is to set up AI-based defense systems to fight fire with fire.
AI-based virus protection can protect against AI-based attacks that would defeat legacy antivirus applications. This monitoring looks for behavior changes on your computer to protect against threats that most IT professionals would overlook. This protection takes the necessary steps to block suspicious behavior and notify the IT department of what happened.
5. Standard Operating Procedures
Many companies use wire transfers to send money via email as a regular course of doing business. They’ll share routing and accounting numbers with clients or vendors to facilitate the process. Cyberattacks can intercept these sales transaction conversations by spoofing email addresses or breaching a company’s email system. They’ll monitor the conversations and wait for the right time to intercept the emails and send their own email with different banking information. Once the money is wired to the wrong person, it’s often discovered too late, and that money is unrecoverable.
BRITECITY’s solution is to set up standard operating procedures to prevent these types of financial transactions from happening in an unsecure manner.
You can install multi-factor authentication as part of the email process. And require verification of banking information by phone with the person who will be receiving the money for each transaction.
Setting up secure standard operating procedures gets everyone in the company to follow the steps laid out in a plan rather than merely reacting to a bad situation. It also enables you to put safeguards in place to protect against outside threats.
BRITECITY is an Orange County IT Services firm supporting local businesses in the area of Managed IT Services, Cyber Security, Cloud Services and Strategic IT.