In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the importance of IT security across all areas of business, regardless of a company’s size or scope of operations. This is because acts of cybercrime and the work of cybercriminals can cause significant damage to any organization; a successful cyberattack can cost a firm hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover from.
In addition, there is a resultant cost to the reputation of a business following an act of cybercrime. If sensitive information (such as customer details or payment information) is compromised, it can have a significant and negative effect on the public perception of the company and may result in reduced trade following the attack. In short, cybersecurity should be a key focus of any organization.
In this article, three ways to improve IT security in your firm will be explored.
Secure your cloud applications
Millions of businesses have taken the step of moving their key business applications and software platforms to internet-based locations (i.e., moving to the cloud). This process of cloud migration often gives businesses some key operational benefits, most notably, the ability to effectively support a remote workforce and decentralize a company. However, it is of paramount importance that all cloud-based applications are effectively secured and protected from unwanted intrusions from those who are not authorized to access them.
A key way to achieve improved cloud security and protect your online applications is by using an advanced API management platform. Such platforms have additional security features built in to ensure that online-based apps are protected against the actions of cybercriminals. Commonly, API management platforms can monitor traffic coming to each app and alert IT teams if unusual usage or access requests are being made. In addition, tokens may be used to authenticate access requests, and different forms of encryption may be applied to the system.
Provide comprehensive staff training
Another key way to improve IT security throughout a company is to roll out comprehensive staff training programs. These should include information on how to spot malicious emails, how to identify simple forms of malware (such as suspicious attachments in emails), and how to recognize acts of phishing. In addition, information should be provided on the multiple types of malware that exist and common ways that cybercriminals use to gain entry to company IT systems.
In short, an educated workforce who have a working knowledge of the key concepts of cybercrime can be a vital first line of defense against the work of cybercriminals.
Use password management systems
Finally, it is well understood that millions of employees still use weak passwords when accessing company systems. These can be incredibly easy to guess by cybercriminals, or relatively basic software can be used to work out the password. Click here to find out more about the abundance of weak password usage and gain a greater understanding of how easy it may be to gain access to corporate systems in these circumstances. The problem of weak passwords can be effectively solved by using a password management system. These applications typically generate extremely strong passwords that would be incredibly difficult to guess and use encryption to store them. A master password or biometric information is used to access the other passwords.
