Cybersecurity for Businesses
Though the word “cybersecurity” makes most business owners think of an advanced service or an add-on, cybersecurity is now foundational for businesses of every size. Whether you are a small business needing to protect against ransomware attacks, or a larger organization needing compliance with industry standards, all businesses need some level of cybersecurity in place. A layered approach to cybersecurity is the best way to protect your network and your data. A brief description of the necessary security layers includes:
- Backup – this is the most fundamental part of your security plan. You need backup that follows the “3-2-1″ best practice (3 copies of your data, on 2 different mediate, with 1 copy offsite). The backup jobs must be monitored daily and tested regularly – untested backup has often proved unreliable. There is no worse feeling than believing your data is backed up, only to find that the one time you need it is isn’t there (here is one famous story about that happening). There is no such thing as “set it and forget it” for backup – monitoring, maintenance, and testing backup are all critical parts of a professional backup service.
- Email protection – Advanced spam filtering, proper DNS security, encryption, and securing the email environment are all necessary parts of email protection. Email is one of the biggest threat vectors for businesses, and securing it is critical to securing your business as a whole.
- Cybersecurity Training – the biggest threat to security is the person using the computer. Training is an essential part of securing your network.
- Updates and Patching
- Security Assessments
- Dark Web Scanning
- Phishing Tests
- Firewall – A good firewall includes content filtering, advanced DNS protection, securing remote access, and much more. The firewall software that comes with Windows can be helpful, but is totally inadequate for protecting against most threats. Most network protection should take place at a higher level, before a hacker can even get access to the computer operating system.
