Defending your business from IT security threats is something that should not be overlooked. The cost, stress, inconvenience and downtime caused by a cyberattack on your company’s computer systems far outweigh any upfront investment in cybersecurity and protection.
WHAT IS A CYBERATTACK?
To understand if your cybersecurity is effective, let’s discuss what a cyberattack is.
A cyberattack is a set of actions performed by threat actors, who try to gain unauthorised access, steal data or cause damage to computers, computer networks, or other computing systems.
Cyberattacks are unfortunately becoming increasingly common and this is why having an effective cybersecurity strategy in place is so important for your business.
TYPES OF CYBERATTACKS
Here are some examples of cyberattacks:
- Malware
- Phishing
- Denial of Service Attack
- SQL Injection
Computer hackers and cybercriminals don’t stand still – their technological ability constantly evolves.
HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOUR CYBERSECURITY IS EFFECTIVE?
We have come up with a checklist of three items that you can use to see if your cybersecurity is effective.
CYBER ESSENTIALS
One of the ways to best understand the effectiveness of your cybersecurity is to perform an audit. You can do this through the government-backed Cyber Essentials Scheme. This industry-supported scheme is there to help organisations protect themselves against common online threats. Find out more here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/…
SCAN FOR VULNERABILITIES
One of the most common reasons for a business to fall victim to a cyberattack is because IT Equipment is running software that is insecure since it contains a known vulnerability that cybercriminals can easily exploit.
Software updates usually fix known vulnerabilities, so cybercriminals can only exploit a known vulnerability from the moment it becomes known until the moment that the software update is installed. It’s important to keep apps and operating systems up to date to avoid a malicious attack from happening.
Quick Tip: It’s also best practice to change passwords on a regular basis to help prevent cyberattacks.
PENETRATION TESTING
Penetration or Pen Testing is a security exercise where a cyber-security expert attempts to breach some or all of a system’s security. The purpose of this is to identify any weak spots in a system’s defenses that attackers could take advantage of.
There are 5 commonly used Pen Testing Strategies.
- External Testing
- Internal Testing
- Blind Testing
- Double Blind Testing
- Targeted Testing
Pen Testing tests what kind of malicious activity is possible if those weaknesses are exploited.
These are the main tests that you can do to check to see how effective your Cybersecurity is.
Our cybersecurity solutions are designed to protect your data, computers, servers, networks, and mobile devices from malware, viruses, unauthorised access from hackers, and any other form of cyberattack.
For more information, please call us on 01245 208080.
– By Justine Maher