Cybersecurity has become a serious issue and concern for businesses, large and small. For business owners, the thought of losing customer and company data can be horrifying. However, cyber threats are steadily increasing in volume and frequency, making it vital for companies to find practical solutions.
One of the biggest challenges for businesses is that cybercriminals keep changing their tactics daily. As such, companies need to update their cybersecurity solutions regularly. Staying ahead when it comes to cybersecurity solutions makes it possible to counter the sophisticated cybersecurity attack methods.
However, the first step is to study the threat landscape of your business. You must know the threats your business could face online to come up with practical solutions. This article will look at some top cybersecurity threats businesses face and possible solutions to each of them.
Let’s get started.
1. Phishing Attacks
There is no doubt that phishing is one of the biggest threats that businesses face today. It comes in various forms, such as emails, instant messages, etc. They include links that give access to business networks and personal and business data if the recipients click it.
Phishing is extremely dangerous, and thus businesses need to take preventive measures. One way to avoid it is by using software to filter all email traffic. This can help you avoid clicking emails from suspicious addresses. Another solution is training your employees on the best email practices.
2. Ransomware
According to Reuters, up to 1500 businesses get hit by ransomware attacks. This trend makes ransomware one of the popular attacking methods among attackers. A ransomware attack, in a nutshell, involves holding a business’s data ransom by encrypting it and forcing the company to pay a ransom to regain access.
Cybercriminals hugely benefit by using this technique and leave businesses financially crippled. You can invest in a robust endpoint protection solution to avoid falling victim to a ransomware attack. Investing in endpoint protection is as easy as reaching out to ics vendors who offer threat intelligence tools.
Besides providing this solution, these vendors can also help with asset management, provide remote and physical access control tools, etc. Thus, it would help if you considered checking them out. Also, consider investing in a cloud backup solution so that you retrieve data in case of a ransomware attack.
3. Computer Viruses
Viruses are other threats that businesses have to keep their eye on constantly. Research shows that over 33% of household computers are infected with viruses. This doesn’t mean that business networks are safe since computer viruses spread like wildfire, and your computer can get infected if you aren’t careful.
Primarily, computer viruses get into our systems through phishing, infected hardware, and adware. They cause severe damage to stored data once they get into computer systems. The good news is that investing in an effective antivirus solution and avoiding clicking on unknown links and ads helps.
4. Insider Threats
Another major threat that businesses need to protect themselves from is the insider threat. This is where your current and former employees or associates and contractors put your business at risk. An insider threat is a significant risk because it comes from people with uncensored access to a network.
The fact that you have allowed these people access to your network makes you less suspicious. This then makes detecting and responding to an insider threat in good time challenging. Besides, people can take part in insider threats knowingly or unknowingly; thus, every situation is unique.
The first way to prevent insider attacks is deactivating former employee accounts. You can also stop them by using an access control solution on your business network. These two solutions can help prevent people from accessing accounts they probably do not need, hence reducing insider threats.
5. Malware
Malicious software, shortened as malware, is another serious threat for businesses today. This involves the use of malicious code to gain access to a company’s data. Like computer viruses, you can get malicious code from several sources, primarily through phishing emails and infected devices.
Malware attacks can be damaging to businesses in various ways. Once your data gets compromised, the first thing you lose is customer trust in your company. It will hurt your brand’s reputation, and you will also suffer a substantial financial loss to get your systems up and running again.
The best way to prevent malware attacks is by investing in technological solutions. Endpoint protection solutions can help you manage your devices more effectively and also avoid malicious downloads. You can also invest in web security solutions to prevent employee access to suspicious websites.
6. Weak Passwords
Passwords are the first line of defense every business has on their networks. Your business will operate at greater risk if you do not have passwords in place. Besides, using weak passwords is no different from having none, as cybercriminals are getting smarter and can now crack weak device passwords.
Thus, you need to ensure that all your devices and business accounts have password protection. The passwords also need to be strong and not easy to guess. Combining letters, numbers, and special characters are highly suggested to make them as strong as possible.
Investing in a password management tool and implementing multi-factor authentication are also great ideas for preventing attacks. You also need to train your employees and customers on good password practices. Make sure to discourage bad practices such as password sharing and reuse for better safety.
Conclusion
Businesses operating online do so at considerable risk. There are all sorts of threats online, and companies need to find ways of protecting themselves from all these threats. Fortunately, there is a solution for every threat a business faces online, and most of these solutions are easy to implement.
This article has explored top cybersecurity solutions that you can implement for your business’s security. How you infuse them into your overall security strategy will determine your success. Besides, building a solid cybersecurity culture for your business is one of the best ways to prevent and counter such threats.
