According to a survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, 90% of businesses that answered admitted to experiencing a security threat to their IT infrastructure and 46% of them lost business-critical information due to those threats, which are done either through malware, phishing attacks, or accidental data leak.
Big companies paid $551,000 on the average to recover from this breach, while there’s another $69,000 spent indirectly. Needless to say, securing your IT Infrastructure is critical to avoid the huge costs of recuperating from cyberattacks.
There are a lot of ways that companies can take to prevent malware and phishing attacks, as well as accidental data leaks, but here are some of the most basic ones that should be implemented thoroughly.
Building a strong IT Support Team
Your IT team does more than just fix computer or Internet issues for the company. They are the first line of defense who install and update everything that secures your servers and IT infrastructure.
When choosing people for the team, make sure that they are trustworthy and knowledgeable enough to offer you alternatives when it comes to securing your business.
They should also be able to provide information and explain situations to non-IT-adept people in a way that can easily be understood.
Using unique passwords and two-step authentication
A strong password can help in preventing attempts to break into your system. Ideally, passwords should have more than eight characters that combine uppercase and lowercase letters, special characters, and numbers. This unique password, however, can only be used for a time.
Remember to frequently change your passwords, preferably every quarter, with the same strength as the older ones.
To further reinforce protection, two-factor authentication can also be used. This works by verifying a second code or information that only the owner of the account knows, aside from the password provided.
Utilizing anti-virus software and firewall
Anti-virus software can detect irregularities early on since most of them run in real-time and don’t need to be turned on to work. Firewalls are extra layers of protection to your already secured servers that control which components of your software or services are exposed to the network, so vulnerability to attacks is reduced.
Regularly run both deep virus and network vulnerability scan to detect malicious files that may have viruses and help identify weak spots on your server and IT infrastructure. Make sure that the version of your anti-virus software is updated as well.
Installing and updating trusted software and operating systems
Only install an operating system or program from credible and trusted services since those downloaded or bought from unknown sources may contain malware and other security risks.
Both OS and installed software should always be updated to fix bugs and improve security and system speed, reliability, and efficiency.
In this digital age, it pays to be prepared. The cost of additional protection is always less compared to the amount you need to recuperate from threats and attacks.