Defending Your Business Against a Cyber Attack

Given the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks, your approach to cyber security should encompass multiple layers of defense. The idea is that an attack may penetrate one or more defenses you have in place but another one will still protect you. With a number of employees now working remotely at least part-time, your cyber security plan should take this into account. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Backup your data and test your backups. If Ransomware or other malware encrypts or deletes your data, a reliable backup gives you an option for recovery.


2. Invest in education for your staff on recognizing a phishing or social engineering attack. As part of this, get a third-party solution to simulate phishing attacks on your company.  Together, these can significantly reduce the risk of a successful attack targeted at your workforce.


3. Get a good endpoint protection solution for your devices. While technology can’t solve this problem alone, it is an important element of your cyber security platform.


4. Buy a password manager for your employees. All of us have many usernames and passwords to maintain and a password manager can simplify the ability to for your staff to use strong and unique passwords with their applications.


5. Lastly but most importantly, have a plan to recover from a successful cyber attack. The better your plan, the more prepared you will be if this happens to you or your company.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but will give you a good start to securing your environment.  While it may seem overwhelming, it’s important to put a long-term plan in place to address your areas of weakness over time.  Each step you take forward is important and reduces the risk to your business.  In future posts, I’ll go into more detail on each of these elements.

If you need help in developing your cyber security plan, contact The SMB CIO for a free consultation.