October 15, 2021 | By stephen

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Good IT Isn’t Good Enough

• Cybersecurity

Several business owners and managers seem to believe that their IT is good or good enough. Unfortunately, not once have we noticed alarmingly glaring glitches when we conduct preliminary scans on prospective clients’ systems. So, how good is good enough?

Good Isn’t Good Enough | LeadingIT 049

There’s a huge difference, especially with the continual aggravation of cyber incidents, between an IT cybersecurity system that’s good enough and what you need to safeguard your network. The stakes are higher than ever before.

Cybersecurity Is a Do or Die

For a long time, organizations primarily invested in cybersecurity to meet industry requirements. Others saw it as a way of marketing their businesses and boosting customer confidence in their offerings. While these reasons still hold ground, cybersecurity is no longer just a luxury—it’s a do-or-die investment. Here’s why:

• Ransomware is rising by the day: Over the years, ransomware has grown into one of the most lethal cyber attack vectors. And this year hasn’t been any different. According to Threat Post, the U.S. recorded an over 185% increase in ransomware cases in the first half of 2021 alone. With the average cost of ransomware attacks jumping to approximately $1.85 million, you wouldn’t want to be a victim.
• Cyberattackers now focus on disrupting business operations: Initially, bad cyber actors targeted stealing data and blackmailing organizations to send ransoms, or they publicize the stolen information. However, going by the recent meat processing company, JBS, and other related supply chain attacks, they seem to shift their focus to interrupting business operations. Downtime is costly and a more discreet way of coaxing companies into paying ransoms without a bargain.
• Cyberattacks dent reputations: The adage goes—it takes several years to build a solid reputation and a single silly mistake to ruin it. The modern-day consumer is cautious about whom they trust with their data and even more skeptical about how you handle their information. If they think you cannot keep their credentials and personally identifiable information (PII) safe, such as when you experience a breach, they’ll find alternatives. It might take you even more years to win back their trust.
• Cyberattacks are costly: According to Cybersecurity Magazine, organizations incur losses amounting to approximately $1 million for every cyberattack. By any standard, this is a huge financial setback. For small and medium-sized businesses, this can bring you down to your knees.

What are we driving at? The cybersecurity issue is becoming more severe and is seemingly here to stay. The bad news is that everyone is a potential target and bad cyber actors keep advancing their tactics by the day. What may have been perfect yesterday may not work today.

Therefore, assuming that your data security systems are always good enough might be your most significant risk. So, do you want to sit pretty and see how deep the rabbit hole goes? Or do you want to put in place proactive measures to enhance your security posture?

How to Keep Your Company’s Networks Safe

As we’ve repeated from the very beginning, no cybersecurity system or protocol offers surefire protection. Therefore, you should continually update whatever measures you have in place to match the emerging threat patterns:

1. Continuously train your staff on cybersecurity: More than 81% of data breaches and hacks result from employee negligence. Modern intrusion detection and prevention technologies are only as effective as your staff can use them. Therefore, you should occasionally teach your employees to identify emerging threats, first-response protocols, common tricks, information technology trends, and anything that will enhance their cyber awareness. You might also consider intermittently simulating attacks to test their preparedness levels and keep them agile.
2. Maintain reliable backups: As we said, cyberattackers are increasingly turning to interruption of business operations as a way of coaxing companies into paying ransoms. With easy-to-retrieve and reliable backups of all your essential documents, however, you can sustain basic operations and bargain with the cyber actors when you’re more collected.
3. Continually roll out new cybersecurity layers: The best way to keep threats out of your networks is using a multifaceted approach. While password complexity and expiration protocols may be an excellent way to start, the question is—what if the bad guys get hold of the passcode? And that’s where multifactor authentication comes in; it adds an extra layer of security for additional protection.
4. Regular network assessments: If you’ve been following the recent happenings in cybersecurity, you must have noticed how bad cyber actors increasingly camp in targets’ networks before launching an attack. Take the SolarWinds hack, for example; the attackers were in the tech giant’s systems several months before the onslaught. Regularly assessing your network can help you identify and thwart these dormant threats before they become severe.
5. Monitor your systems round-the-clock: Imagine going for a long-distance journey and never checking if you’ve closed your windows or not. If the windows are open, burglars will get in and steal your property. And that’s the same threat that you’re putting your network into by leaving them unmonitored.

Have you noticed anything from these safety tips? You guessed right—cybersecurity begins with the basics.

Isn’t Cybersecurity Expensive?

It may look costly on the surface, but a hack will be a thousand times more expensive. Cheap is expensive, they say. We know that doing all these and still juggling between business-core tasks may not be easy. The trick is working with an IT support team that understands and identifies with your aspirations.

LeadingIT offers 24/7, all-inclusive, fast, and friendly technology and cybersecurity support for nonprofits, manufacturers, schools, accounting firms, religious organizations, government, and law offices with 10-200 employees across the Chicagoland area.