Cyber security is not an option for businesses but a necessity today because of an increasing number of organisations falling into the traps of cybercriminals. Reports of cyber-attacks and privacy infringements are heard across the world, from large public organizations, multinational companies, and financial institutions to SMEs and even small individual entities. While attackers or hackers are always trying out new ways to breach confidential data, businesses need to constantly remain alert to the threats and take effective actions to prevent them. This blog explains the key cyber security principles and best practices that you need to follow for keeping your business abreast of the latest cyber-attacks and preventing them.
The 5 principles of cyber security are the basis of the practices that you need to follow for protecting the sensitive data in your business.
1. Data encryption – You should be aware that data stored anywhere in any form can be lost, stolen, shared, or used in an unauthorised way. Even when they are in transit, i.e., transferred from one database to another, they can be infringed. Therefore, it is essential that you adopt the data encryption principle both when the data is at rest and in transit. Encryption refers to the process of translating the data in plain text to unreadable ciphertext which can only be accessed by an authorised user with an encryption key.
2. Compliance with Standards – Companies that heavily depend on the information and IT systems need to maintain compliance with general data security regulations and standards like ISO 27001 for security. Therefore, you need to develop security policies and a management framework for your company to achieve compliance.
3. Managed access – You need to ensure that only responsible and authorised persons can access the databases, IT devices, or computer systems of your company. A strong authentication method must be in place to ensure that beyond just the usual password protection. Two-factor or multi-factor authentication therefore shall be used which needs the person to enter a unique code after providing username and password to access a data system.
4. Trusted attack simulation – This is one of the crucial cyber security principles today that help businesses to identify the security breach points before the hackers discover them. This includes simulating attacks from both internal and outside sources. You need to create a report after identifying all the security holes and take appropriate actions to remove them.
5. Network security – You should be aware that connecting over the internet to any unsecured network will make your system vulnerable to cyber-attacks or bugs. Thus, you should deploy appropriate policies and technical methods to protect your business from network threats.
You now know the key cyber security principles, let’s take a moment to learn about the best practices that your business should adopt today for ensuring cyber security.
The first practice is initiating training for employees. Employ a centralised security approach under which everyone in the organisation becomes responsible for the security of data, IT devices, and systems. Through regular training, you can ensure that there is heightened awareness in your organisation about security threats and reduce the negligence of employees. Educate employees about avoiding phishing emails and identifying probable threats and keep them updated with the latest security measures.
Make sure that the devices or IT systems are always password-protected to prevent unlawful access or use of the data. The critical information assets must be protected from the remote devices because you are not sure who can access them. Always provide guidelines to employees for creating strong passwords and resetting them after periodic intervals. Lastly, you should prevent too many users from accessing the data.
Make cyber security a management responsibility by developing a definite policy and establishing a comprehensive Information Security Management System (ISMS). ISO 27001 is the international standard for ISMS. Thus, you can achieve it to ensure your organisation has the most competent and robust system for cyber security. To maintain your compliance with the standard’s requirements, you also need to perform audits at periodic intervals which help to discover weaknesses in your ISMS and continually improve it.
Even having the most competent security practices in your business is not enough to keep your data safe. Instances of fire breakout, natural disaster, physical intrusion, or theft will lead to destruction and permanent loss of your data. Therefore, make it a practice to back-up the data in a safer cloud-based platform regularly so that it cannot even be attacked by ransomware and can be easily retrieved.
While hacking, privacy violations, malware or other threats are increasing rapidly, how organisations can secure their data is a big question. Finding the right approach to cyber security is challenging. Following these fundamental cyber security principles and best practices will perhaps help them find the correct approach.
Cyber security is a vast concept and may vary from one organisation to another, depending on the type of IT systems or information assets. However, this blog will give you an idea to create your cyber security policy and put best practices in action to prevent attacks or respond to any inevitable threats.
At Compliancehelp, our consultants can assist you in implementing the information security management system ensuring its compliance with the ISO 27001 standard and will also help to maintain it later. Feel free to contact us!
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