Important Measures To Protect Your Company’s Sensitive Data From Cyber Attacks

Are you concerned about the safety of your company’s sensitive data? If so, you’re not alone.  For instance, if you have a business operating in Australia, you may use a secure Australian VPN to ensure all work operations are always kept within employees only.

Cyber attacks are rising, and businesses of all sizes are at risk. However, there are several measures you can take to protect your data from cyber thieves.

 In this blog post, we’ll outline some of the most important steps you can take to keep your company’s information safe. Read on to learn more tips:

1. Protect Your Business From Employee Negligence

Explain to your employees why adhering to cybersecurity regulations is crucial. According to the 2022 Ponemon Cost of Insider Threats Global Report, 62% of all insider data breaches were due to employee error or neglect in 2018.

Educating your staff on why it is necessary to follow cybersecurity laws is a good strategy to combat employee irresponsibility and security errors.

• Raise awareness of your organization’s cyber hazards and their impact on the bottom line.
• Explain the significance of each computer security safeguard to your personnel 
• Provide examples of actual security breaches, their repercussions, and the difficulty of rehabilitation.
• Request employee input on today’s business network security.

2. Add Extra Security To All Your Work Devices

Provide access management for all user types. It is essential to secure access to your personal information from any place or device. Today, remote workers and staff who use their own devices play a greater role in the security of a business than ever before.

Based on the 2021 BYOD Security Research by Bitglass, 82% of 271 firms polled in April 2021 had embraced a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy. Moreover, security issues are among the most significant obstacles to BYOD adoption.

3. Minimize Too Many Users Accessing Personal Data

Be wary of having an excessive number of users access your data.

By default offering new employees all privileges, they can access sensitive data. This method increases the likelihood of cyber attacks and gives hackers access to critical information after a single worker account is compromised.

According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, privilege abuse is the biggest cause of data breaches. The notion of least privilege is a far better option (POLP).

4. Monitor All Users Who Have Access to Personal Data

It is possible for privileged users to access your sensitive data without being detected. Even if you trust your employees and they do not mean to act deliberately, their activities may inadvertently produce a leak or allow hackers to access their accounts.

According to the 2021 Insider Threat Report by Cybersecurity Insiders, it is not unexpected that many organizations actively monitor privileged accounts compared to other accounts, applications, devices, and documents.

5. Ensure You Have a Cybersecurity Policy

A written cyber security policy is like an official guide for all of your company’s cybersecurity efforts. It enables your security teams and staff to be aware of the security terms and provides a method for implementing data-protecting regulations.

However, the workflow of each section is distinct and easily disturbed by unnecessary cybersecurity procedures.

Secondly, although a centralized security strategy might be advantageous as a general guide for the entire firm, it should not encompass every activity in each department. Instead, permit the departments to develop their separate cybersecurity policies in accordance with the law.

6. Ensure Employees Use VPN on Their Work Devices

Encryption, which works to make data unreadable by scrambling it, is what makes virtual private networks (VPNs) possible.

Your data is sent across in plaintext if you use a connection that is not secure. This is data that can be read, and everyone who is connected to your network has the potential to view it.

Your data is encrypted with an algorithm by a virtual private network (VPN), which makes it impossible to read. If anyone intercepted it, they would see a jumbled-up combination of characters and numbers. 

7. Conduct Cybersecurity Audits

The key to responding to unanticipated situations quickly is a timely investigation of your or authorized staff’s odd behaviors. The thoroughness of information gathered in various ways or located in diverse sources, such as the admin account, session records, and metadata, determines the audit’s quality. 

You can get information from thorough security logs about the end user and privileged user activities, including activity information and other specifics. You can use this information to conduct a root cause evaluation of a security issue and locate cybersecurity weak spots. 

Automated reporting on specific users and incidents greatly accelerates and streamlines your audits.

8. Invest in Biometric Security

The use of biometrics ensures quick authentication, secure management of access, and accurate monitoring of employees.

The use of gait analysis, fingerprint scans, voice recognition, facial recognition, and behavioral biometrics are all excellent techniques for determining whether or not users are who they say they are.

 It is crucial for the success of your company to conduct identity checks on users before granting them access to important assets.

9. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication

You can protect personal data by adding extra security using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). This makes it incredibly difficult for cybercriminals to log in using your credentials because it requires more than one piece of data. 

Even if a hacker obtains your login credentials, they will still need a second and possibly even a third “factor” of identity verification to access your account. These “authentication factors ” could include your mobile phone, fingerprint, or even your unique voiceprint.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity is a critical issue for all businesses, and it’s important to take the necessary precautions to protect your company’s sensitive data. These five measures are a good starting point, but make sure you also stay up-to-date on the latest security threats and solutions.