Have you got these cyber security best practises implemented yet?

It’s inescapable: cyber crimes are increasing at a fairly alarming rate and Australian companies are popular targets.

In fact, it’s believed that an average of 164 cyber crimes are reported every day in the country, which is more than 1 every 10 minutes.

Since the average cost of rectifying a ransomware attack is thought to be US$732,520 – and that’s for businesses that didn’t pay the ransom – these sorts of cyber security breaches can prove fatal to a company.

Taking these words into consideration, we’ve put together an easy guide of the key cyber security practises you need to implement to protect your business. 

Increase staff awareness

This is an important one, yet something that is often overlooked. It is becoming increasingly critical for staff to follow appropriate policies and procedures when it comes to cyber security strategy.

You wouldn’t send your employee out to tackle a fire, for instance, without any appropriate training or awareness of how to do it safely. The same goes for those technological fires you need to be putting out. Informing your staff of types of cyber threats and how to keep their own and the company’s data safe is equally as vital as the technical safeguarding of your data. Knowledge is power.

That being said, it’s not always easy getting your employees to understand the intricacies of cyber security. You’ve heard of a great working culture, now it’s time to get familiar with developing a great security culture. This involves both raising levels of awareness and helping to embed ‘security-aware’ values and behaviours across your organisation.

Chris Wallis, founder of UK cyber security company Intruder, has pretty much got it nailed when he said:

“The most important threat for the majority of staff to be aware of is ‘phishing’, but a quick Google for ‘examples of phishing attacks’ and a quarterly warning email sent around the office would be a good start for most smaller companies.”

On top of this, CERT Australia suggests using examples to illustrate risks and extending training to suppliers.

Undertake risk assessments

According to the ASBFEO Cyber Security Research Report, 33% of businesses with fewer than 100 employees don’t take proactive measures against cyber security breaches. Don’t be a part of that figure: make sure your business is performing proactive risk assessments as a way to better prepare for a potential cyber threat or attack. It could save you thousands of dollars and a PR storm down the line.

Complying with data regulations is necessary; but in today’s world of looming cyber threats, it’s simply not enough. When you implement a systems security review, not only will this point out any network, data and server vulnerabilities, to name but a few. It will also serve as a way to analyse possible threats, risks and your own vulnerabilities – and we’re not talking about your inability to Concatenate in Excel. From here on, you can create an effective cyber security company projection.

Regularly back up company data

It cannot be stressed enough: backing up your data is one of the most proactive things you can do when it comes to maintaining cyber security best practice.

Data backup is defined as:

“a process of duplicating data to allow retrieval of the duplicate set after a data loss event. Today, there are many kinds of data backup services that help and organizations ensure that data is secure and that critical information is not lost in a natural disaster, theft situation or other kind of emergency.”

Of course, backing up your data won’t stop ransomware getting their uninvited hands on your company data, but at least you know you can still access your data in the unwelcome event of an attack.

Don’t allow admin privileges to everyone

Administrative privileges work because they grant data access only to the relevant people. This is nothing to do with status; it simply means that only those who are trained and trusted are able to get to important data. 

To lower your chances of becoming the next ransomware victim, when new users join your company, make sure to be strict with these privileges and only escalate their permissions when necessary.

Create an incident response plan

Cisco defines an incident response as a set of instructions to help IT staff detect, respond to, and recover from network security incidents.

These types of plans address issues like cyber crime, data loss, and service outages that threaten daily work. Having one will hugely help in managing any damage as a result of a security breach. Larger companies could even think about assembling an incident recovery team.

Hire – or become – a cyber security expert

This is far from an exhaustive list of the steps you can take to battle against cyber crime and assist with the implementation of cyber security best practice. Another way is to ensure that, at the very least, one person in your business is a trained cyber security professional who can add preventative measures and safeguards to your company’s computer networks, and knows what to do in the event of an attack.

Meet Bodhi, our former student and certified ethical hacker, who took a full collection of security courses with us. Hear about his experience below:

At Learning People, we offer a range of cyber security courses for individuals and business employees looking to train in up-to-date cyber practises. Book a call with one of our career consultants today to find out more about enrolling yourself or your team onto our online learning platform.