For cybercriminals, small businesses are considered easy targets as they mostly lack resources, experience, and expertise. That’s why SMBs frequently face cyber attacks, and they should be ready to handle the growing number of cyber risks, and threats. Cybercriminals usually use malware, ransomware, DDoS, phishing, SQL injection, Zero Day exploits, and Man-in-the-middle attacks to achieve their malicious purposes such as stealing confidential data, spying on network activities, conducting harmful activities, or causing a shutdown in systems. With some of these attacks, cybercriminals can penetrate 93% of corporate networks, and cause severe damage. Falling victim to cyber-attacks isn’t an option for SMBs as recovery costs can be hard to cover and lead them to bankruptcy.
For SMBs creating a good cyber security ecosystem and taking the right security cyber security approach is critical. SMBs should create and follow threat prevention strategies to secure their organization. In this article, we’ll examine effective threat prevention strategies that will give you insights into how to secure your organization against existing and evolving cyber threats.
1- Implementing Strong Cybersecurity Policies
Implementing strong cybersecurity policies is vital for SMBs as these cover important steps, measures, rules, and procedures to secure their information technologies and organizations. Cyber security policies can include strong password requirements, email security measures, regular software updates, incident response plans, etc. Having strong cybersecurity policies can help SMBs secure their organizations and mitigate existing and evolving cyber risks.
2- Training Your Employees
The security of your organization should be a priority for everyone within the company. To build a safe working environment, your organization should give cybersecurity training to all employees. Cyber security courses should include cybersecurity basics, the importance of good cyber hygiene, the most common cyber attacks, methods, and cybersecurity policies and measures to prevent cyber threats. One of the main purposes of cyber security training is to encourage employees to follow your organization’s cybersecurity policies and procedures at all times because an employee’s reckless action can cause severe damage and problems to the organization.
In short, educating employees on cybersecurity will pay off good results. Thanks to cybersecurity courses, your employees can be able to identify threats like phishing emails, malicious links, websites, etc, and avoid harmful actions that can cause severe security problems.
3- Using Advanced Security Tools
Implementing robust security tools is how to prevent threats for your business… There are some essential solutions a company needs in order to maintain security at an adequate level. Especially for small companies, protecting your network and its perimeter against cyber threats is crucial since data breaches and other forms of attacks may lead to irreversible damage to your business. So, a firewall, identity access management, data loss prevention tools, and a VPN for secure remote access are necessary for all businesses that want to build effective threat prevention.
Identity and Access Management:
An identity and access management tool has two core functions: authorization and authentication. Every other function is related to these. Essentially, identity access management is a framework for monitoring all traffic coming from endpoints in and around the network and policing access for authorized personnel, and verifying the identity of said users. Administrators can even restrict what authorized users can do with sensitive data to ensure data security with an identity access management tool even if a breach occurs.
IAM tools offer various advanced authentication technologies such as biometrics, two-factor authentication (2FA), multi-factor authentication, and single sign-on (SSO). So, the system checks whether user credentials match with the central database and verifies the existing individual’s identity. This step is vital to prevent your sensitive information from being compromised. Additionally, IAM tools offer an accounting function in which user requests are logged and suspicious activities are reported.
Firewall:
A firewall is the first line of defense for securing your business network against cyber threats. All the incoming and outgoing traffic is monitored and tracked through firewalls to either block or allow the activity actively. Based on defined security rules, firewalls decide whether access requests will be accepted or declined. So, a firewall is an effective tool for protecting the network from viruses and malware since it integrates an intrusion prevention system.
Companies must make sure firewalls are enabled on each endpoint of their business network and regularly update them. Also, remote-working employees must install a firewall on their devices to keep their home systems and the business network protected. If companies want to provide even more security, consider implementing firewalls that have advanced features like Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).
Secure Remote Access:
Ever since the pandemic, the majority of companies have shifted their business to remote working environments. So, the remote workforce grew uncontrollably leaving businesses with more security vulnerabilities. Businesses must have a strong foundation for securing remote access. Virtual private networks must be established to encrypt traffic and ensure secure tunneling for those who have remote access to the business networks. Since companies store many confidential data and information in their systems, protection for remote access is critical. For further security measures, static IP addresses can be implemented for those who have remote access to the company network.
Data Loss Prevention Software:
Another effective strategy for mitigating threats would be using data loss prevention software. DLP software aims to restrict unauthorized access and activity related to sensitive data. DLP ensures the safety of data by logging its location and applying network segmentation along with various prevention features. Essentially, preventing data loss is dependent on detecting and blocking data breaches, exfiltration attempts, and illicit transfer or destruction of confidential data.
Small businesses can have improved visibility, control, and security, monitor data access and usage, and maintain regulatory compliance with data loss prevention software. Also, companies can facilitate data storage and retention policy updates for compliance by constructing a DLP strategy. When constructing an incident response plan, data loss prevention must be effective to mitigate the effects of data breaches.
4- Orchestrate Risk Assessments and Incident Response Plan
Conducting regular risk assessments and creating incident response plans are critical for SMBs. Conducting regular risk assessments will help SMBs identify the degree of risks for information technologies, company assets, and resources. During risk assessments, SMBs can pinpoint vulnerabilities and weaknesses in current systems and implement measures accordingly.
Also, SMBs should create an incident response plan that includes explicit directions and guidelines on what to do when a data breach incident happens. Having an incident response plan will help SMBs identify the attack and isolate threats quickly before they cause further damage. By creating an incident response plan, SMBs can be prepared to handle cyber attacks. Also, when SMBs have an incident response plan in place, they will know exactly what to do, and the steps that should be taken to deal with the incident. This is a really important aspect of incident response plans because SMBs can stay calm in a chaotic moment and follow incident response guidelines.
Final Remarks
In our modern era, small to midsize businesses are constantly facing cyber-attacks because cyber criminals consider them easy targets. Generally, SMBs lack resources and expertise, and they don’t prioritize cyber security. But, SMBs should be more prepared to combat cyber attacks. In this article, we gathered effective threat-prevention strategies for small businesses. Following these strategies can help SMBs create a more secure work environment.
