Modern medium-sized businesses face growing cybersecurity threats that can have a devastating impact on reputation and business operations. Ensuring cybersecurity requires a comprehensive approach that includes the implementation of various technologies and strategies. One effective solution is attack surface management services, which help companies identify and manage vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. In this article, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the main threats to medium-sized businesses, which, however, can be prevented using tools available on the market.
What Can Threaten a Business?
Cyberspace brings not only opportunities but also risks that can pose a danger to a business:
- Ransomware. These malicious programs block access to your data using encryption and demand a ransom.
Do not underestimate the attractiveness of small and medium-sized businesses for cybercriminals. Information about attacks on large corporations may create the impression that only they are of interest to criminals. However, large businesses have more experience and developments in organizing cyber defense, and smaller companies often rely on basic protection and hope. The basis of protection is preventive measures. You can take into account the experience of others and organize reliable cyber defense for your business and focus on the main tasks of the enterprise.
What to do:
- Create a multi-level comprehensive protection. Malicious software is rapidly evolving, so combined protection will be a reliable solution.
- Back up your data regularly. All backups should be stored on a device disconnected from the main network.
- Avoid using personal devices for work purposes and vice versa. Personal devices do not always have reliable antivirus protection, and connecting to a corporate network through unprotected networks creates additional risks.
- Phishing attacks: fraudsters disguise themselves as trusted sources to trick company employees into giving them confidential information. Fake websites and email addresses that are difficult to distinguish from genuine ones can be used for this purpose.
For example, when corresponding with a client, a manager may receive an email from a fake address with an invoice for payment or details for transferring funds. Fraudsters can also call companies posing as clients to obtain bank information or other confidential information.
What to do:
- Monitor all company publications in open sources (digital footprint). Avoid publishing personal data of employees that can be used by fraudsters.
- Enable email filtering, this will reduce the risk of encountering phishers
- Use antivirus software. The anti-phishing function will filter out a lot of cyber threats.
- Be vigilant. Phishing messages have suspicious details: typos, errors, obvious pressure to perform a certain action, and the absence of an SSL certificate on the site.
- Simple passwords: surprisingly, one of the main threats is simple and easy to guess passwords on employees’ devices.
The main reason is the insufficient level of awareness of people about the basics of cybersecurity and the lack of proper control in this area.
What to do:
- Implement a password creation regulation and a system for monitoring its implementation.
- Use a password manager to generate reliable combinations.
- Use multi-factor authentication.
- Always change the default passwords.
- Vulnerability of mobile devices: your phones and tablets can also become a target for hackers.
Very often, remote work requires the constant use of laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. These devices can be both corporate and personal property of the employee. In this situation, increased attention to the security of data on remote devices is required, and the company does not always pay enough attention to this.
What to do:
- Set up password protection.
- Connect the option of tracking, blocking, and zeroing lost devices.
- Make regular backups of data.
- Monitor device and application updates.
- Use data encryption on devices.
- Introduce and maintain a mobile device security policy among employees.
- Human factor. Sometimes the threat does not come from the outside world, but from your own employees who make mistakes.
It is known that about 95% of security incidents are related to the human factor. Usually, these are standard errors, such as going to a suspicious site via a strange link, less often – the actions of former employees and contractors. Regardless of the reason, the main task is to inform employees about the rules of information security.
What to do:
- Employee training: your people should be aware of potential threats and ways to prevent them. There are various training options: services, courses, and internal training.
- Reduce the number of passwords. Strong passwords are good, but when there are too many of them, there is a risk of errors. Use a password manager for secure data storage, as well as multi-factor authentication, which is especially important when using mobile devices.
- Reduce the workload of system administrators through technical support from an information security product provider.
The Foundation of Cyber Defense is Preventive Measures
The foundation of a company’s cyber defense is the implementation of preventive measures aimed at reducing risks and protecting against potential threats. One of the key elements of this strategy is attack surface management services, which help companies identify, assess, and manage vulnerabilities across their entire infrastructure. Such solutions allow you to detect weaknesses in advance and minimize the risks of a successful attack. This provides a higher level of security for the business.
Assessment of The Current Level of Security
A company’s security analysis begins with an assessment of the security systems used in the company. Make a register of all digital assets, such as all equipment, programs, and applications used. You will need a checklist indicating all the storage locations of significant data and the users who have access to it. A competent assessment of the current state of information security will help identify weak points of protection and provide direction in developing a more advanced security system.
What else should be considered:
- You should always have a plan B in case of a cyber threat. Create a checklist of actions in an emergency and familiarize responsible employees with it.
- Stay up to date with current trends in information threats and the latest ways to protect against them. This will allow you to be one step ahead and take security measures in time.
- In a world where digital technologies play an increasingly important role in business, cybersecurity is becoming the cornerstone of successful and stable work.
Wrapping It Up
For medium-sized businesses, cybersecurity is a key element of sustainability and customer trust. With rapidly evolving threats, it is important for businesses not only to respond to incidents in a timely manner but also to actively prevent them. Tools such as attack surface management services play an important role in this. They help companies see vulnerabilities and strengthen protection where necessary. If you want to achieve high-quality business protection, we recommend paying attention to ImmuniWeb, a provider of dark web monitoring and attack surface management services.