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October 19, 2023

5 Important Practices You May Be Overlooking in Preparing Your Business for a Cyberattack

LUKE TIMPE is a cybersecurity expert with over 20+ years of experience in various advisory and leadership roles. He is the founder and CEO of Cybermass (https://cybermass.io), a cyber solutions company out of Phoe- nix, Arizona. His company has helped SMBs and Fortune 500 companies approach cybersecurity in a value and data-driv- en way to bring a more customized solution utilizing a pro- active and predictive strategy.

While there’s no guarantee you’ll completely stop an attacker dedicated to breaching you with phishing attacks and other individualized tactics, there’s a lot you can do to make sure you’re not a low-hanging fruit for cybercriminals. Here are 5 security best practices and the steps you can take to ensure you’re ready for a cyber-attack, garnered from a recent Q&A with cybersecurity expert and adviser, Luke Timpe.

1) Where Should We Start to Improve Cybersecurity for Our Company

If you’re going to improve cyber-security at your business, the first step you need to take is to make an honest assessment of where you are. Conducting a security audit is the first step towards making a plan for improving your resilience in case of a data breach or other cyber-attack. Once you have a better idea of where your strengths and weaknesses lie, you can take the following steps to improve.

2) How Important is Firewall Software in Protecting a Business

This might seem like conventional wisdom, but it’s shocking how many businesses still need to take this first step towards securing their network by running firewall
software. The market is crowded, so take a close look at your options before deciding which to use. Also, your security software is only as good as your update schedule. If you’re not on top of installing patches as new vulnerabilities and attacks are discovered, you might not use it.

3) How Can Employees Play a Role in Cybersecurity?

You need to make cybersecurity a part of your company’s culture if you want your employees helping to prevent hacks instead of unwittingly making one possible. Phishing and other social engineering attacks take advantage of the fact that humans are much easier to exploit than a well-secured network. Your employees need to know the dangers and how to recognize them. A surprising number of hacks and attacks come from disgruntled employees who still have access to a business system through old login information that was never cleaned up. Build processes to remove access promptly from anyone who needs to leave your team, whether an employee or a vendor.

4) Use Password Best Practices

Make sure that your business is following best practices when it comes to passwords. A password manager that can generate different randomized login info for each website can be a real boon here and also make it easier to share that info across teams. Additionally, use a strong password with a mix of characters to make it hard to guess, and change your password regularly. With a new data breach popping up seemingly every day, many people’s go-to credentials are already available on the dark web, waiting for a script to plug them into the right website.

5) How Can Businesses Reduce the Damage Caused by Cyberattacks?

Cyberattacks affect businesses of all sizes and types. The best approach to protecting your business is to develop a cyber incident response plan. Most companies have emergency plans for physical security threats, extreme weather, power outages, and more. It’s essential to have a similar plan for cyber-related incidents. A cyber attack response plan will significantly increase your ability to remediate and recover quickly.

Summary

Security is a moving target. The cybercriminals get more advanced every day. In order to protect your data as much as possible, every employee must make cyber. Most importantly, you stay on top of the latest attack trends and the newest prevention technology. Your business depends on it.