A recent security breach compromised 50 million Facebook accounts. Not only did the company lose user trust, but their stock price dropped too.
The company was already struggling with its investors. But its faulty security cost them millions of dollars at a critical time in the company. And it should have been identified in a typical security audit. The incident should stand as a lesson for all companies, everywhere.
Everything is done on the internet, now. It’s where vital data is stored and it’s how employees communicate with each other. Since everything is on the internet, everything needs to be protected. Even if you’re NIST 800-171 compliant, you still run the risk of being hacked.
Hackers are always honing their techniques. Your security needs to do the same. Keep reading for five tips on how to keep your IT security ready for anything!
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1. Know Yourself and Your Online Enemy
All effective security systems have identified what hackers will go after. It only makes sense for the most important information is protected the most.
That means the first step in developing any security protocol is to know what is most valuable in your company. You need to know what is most valuable to you, and to hackers. They’re not always the same.
Most third-party security professionals like this website will ask a lot of questions about this. Be sure to answer them honestly and completely.
2. Determine Your Current Security’s Effectiveness
The next step in developing a security plan is to find out how effective your current one is. This will help you know what you can keep and minimize how much work you need to do later.
That means you need to run a simple audit. Instead of imagining a complex hacking attempt, it’s better to simulate a simple one. If it gets through, you have a lot of work to do. If not, then you won’t need to do as much.
3. Identify Your Current Security’s Flaws
After completing a simple security audit, it’s time to get serious. With the next round of audits, you should look for more complex flaws that typical hackers may not notice.
Experienced hackers may pick up on them, though. So you need to find them before they do. This can include social engineering or network penetration tests beyond simple hacking.
4. Plan Your Security Updates
After you find out where you need to improve your security systems, you need to lay out plans to update them. Security changes will probably affect everyone in your company. The first step before updating should be to communicate your changes.
Then, you need to schedule an appropriately update your systems which will affect the least people. It’s best to do it during the night since fewer people will be using your systems.
5. Update, then Rinse and Repeat
After you successfully update your security, prepare to do it again.
The cybersecurity world is constantly evolving, on both sides. As you update your security system, hackers are working on new techniques. There is no such thing as perfect security, the best kind is constantly changing.
A Security Audit is as Important as Your Company
Everything depends on your security. Without good security, you could fall victim to yet another hack. Even more recently than Facebook, Google’s social network was hacked and sent stock plummeting.
Since hackers can penetrate the systems of the biggest tech companies in the world, cybersecurity is a safe investment. Running a routine security audit is essential to succeed today. It’s a field you need to stay up to date on to keep your business safe.
To stay up to date, you can keep reading our blog here! We’ll keep you informed so that you can protect your company.
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