March 1, 2023 | By christa

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2 Things Businesses Can Do to Reduce Cyber Risk

• Cybersecurity

Cyber risk incidents are on the rise. Today, it’s more important than ever to make sure your organization is protected. Even if you feel like your security measures are enough, it’s possible that it remains vulnerable to attack.

As a business entity, you never want to risk data security. After all, falling victim to a cybercriminal is often costly, and we’re talking far more than just dollars and cents. Criminals have no shame in denting your reputation and ultimately driving customers away.

For optimal protection, ensure you have the correct protocols in place for 2023.

Cyber Risk Assessment

Up to 90% of cybersecurity incidents result from staff negligence. Moreover, greater than 60% of small to mid-sized firms shut down within six months of a data breach.

If you’re looking to reduce your overall risk, getting a cybersecurity risk assessment is 100% necessary. The best way to conduct a risk assessment is through an IT service provider like LeadingIT to reduce the likelihood of an attack while also increasing employee awareness.

The risk assessment process involves identifying, assessing, and prioritizing threats to your organization’s data and information systems. Once you find a trusted provider and have a risk assessment completed, they will help you implement new protocols like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and backups to retrieve offline copies of your data, among other things.

However, LeadingIT takes the process one step further to include staff training exercises and 24/7 continuous system monitoring.

Incident Response Plan

After a risk assessment has taken place, it’s time to formulate an incident response plan to further protect your business. After all, cyber risk assessment and additional steps (MFA, backups, etc.) alone will not fully protect you from bad actors. Even the most sophisticated systems and protocols can be compromised.

Incident response planning involves creating a set of guidelines that tells you and your staff members how to prepare, identify, and respond to security attacks.

When a threat comes in, time is of the essence. So, you must know how to react quickly to do the most damage control possible. The ideal response plan will map out different cyber-attack scenarios and have corresponding solutions to each one. It should especially have response protocols for the most common types of security threats which include:

• Phishing attempts
• Data breaches
• Social engineering
• Malware
• Password cracks
• Man-in-the-middle attacks (aka eavesdropping attacks)
• Denial-of-service attacks (involves flooding systems to overwhelm resources)

In addition to mapping out the common attacks above, the plan should place emphasis on scenarios derived from the risks identified through your cyber risk assessment.

Get Prepared: Generate Your Free Cyberscore Today!

LeadingIT offers a confidential CyberSCORE to uncover the inefficiencies and vulnerabilities in your company’s computer system.

The score will help you identify both internal and external gaps in security. It will also pinpoint any failure to meet security requirements, if you’re overpaying or being underserved by your current IT support service, and how to increase productivity while also lowering costs.

It’s 100% free to generate your cyberSCORE, contact us and get started today!