Cyber security is essential for any business working with technology. Whether you’re a small startup or an established business, understanding your requirements around cyber security is a must. From outlining policies to understanding the risks and threats to your cyber security, you can better protect your devices, data, and employees.
Cyber security is essential for any business working with technology. Whether you’re a small startup or an established business, understanding your requirements around cyber security is a must. From outlining policies to understanding the risks and threats to your cyber security, you can better protect your devices, data, and employees.
Cyber security is vital for any business as it aids in mitigating the risks posed to your sensitive data from internal and external factors. Organisations that focus on improving their cyber security, training their staff, and maintaining safe data practices can better reduce the risks of reputational damage, data breaches, and financial losses.
While some malicious attacks cannot be prevented, putting a greater focus on your cyber security, outlining a strong cyber security policy for employees, and alleviating some of the risks associated with your business’ data, you can better protect your reputation and sensitive information from attacks.
Cyber security policies are the guidance principles your employees can follow around their cyber usage to maintain the safety and security of your company’s sensitive information. They are frameworks designed to enhance the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of your company’s information as instructions on how to act to protect your digital assets.
These should be regularly reviewed and updated across your entire business to ensure that every employee is aligned with your business’s IT best practices.
Examples of cyber security policies include, but aren’t limited to:
Network security – including defined measures for secure network connectivity, the use of VPNs and other private networks, and the protocols around wireless network connection.Cyber security policies will change depending on your business needs, goals, and stored sensitive information. It is important to regularly update these, and training staff is important to ensure the best safety procedures for your digital assets and the protection of your business, employees, and customers.
A cyber security threat is a wide range of malicious activity that poses a threat to your business’s sensitive information, digital systems, and networks. These threats can come from malware, phishing attempts, and other malicious attempts to access, manipulate, and share your business’ data, digital assets, and access sensitive information.
These attempts attack vulnerabilities in your systems, networks, and personnel to gain unlawful or unauthorised access to your company networks, systems, and information.
Some of the most common cyber security threats include:
As you can see, the variety of attacks range from technological to personal vulnerabilities. This is why training staff, as well as updating your technology stack with security in mind, is essential to protecting your business from these cyber-attacks.
Poor cyber security, data breaches, and other events can have many negative consequences for a business. While cyber attacks aren’t always avoidable, understanding the risks associated with these events can help your business prepare to reduce the impacts and develop strong cyber security policies around reducing these difficulties.
Some cyber security risks include:
Some risks you run from a cyber threat include violating your compliance and regulation agreements. As a business, you’ll have specific compliance agreements regarding the safety and security of your sensitive information.
Data breaches, for example, can be a violation of this. Depending on the size of the cyber threat, this can lead to fines for your business or stronger consequences.
Another risk you run is reputational damage. A cyber security attack can threaten your company’s security and safety for your customers, making it more difficult to maintain loyalty and can cause further issues with gaining new ones.
Reputational damage can be difficult to repair. The loss or accidental distribution of confidential information can make it difficult for customers to share their information with your business again, disrupting the way you work and monitor customer behaviour.
There are a couple of ways your business can suffer financially after a cyber-attack. Not only can your business face financial loss through regulation fines from a data breach, but you might also run the risk of reducing your profits through reputational damage and a loss of confidence from your customers.
Your business must also spend money correcting the vulnerabilities that lead to the cyber-attack. This might mean adjusting your technology stack to remove this vulnerability, for example, if transferring data has caused a data leak.
Mitigating these cyber security threats comes with a better understanding of your business’s vulnerabilities and reducing these cyber security risks. Some common business vulnerabilities that lead to these cyber threats include: