Cyber threats are more common than you think they are. The first thing that you need to understand when using the internet is that every device – whether a mobile phone or a surveillance camera – is a computer. Thus, hackers can use all orthodox techniques like password breaching, malware attacks, as well as phishing scams to hack such devices. Thus, no matter how expensive or branded your devices are, they are all susceptible to hacking and cannot be left unattended on the spree of luck.
The first few things that can be done to reduce the risk of a security breach due to malware or phishing include;
- Fixing software bugs if you’re a software manufacturer
- Hiring ethical hackers to scan the software tools that you’re using
- Reporting bugs directly to the manufacturer if you’re an ethical hacker running scans on software applications
- Using network and system scanning tools to debug the system/app constantly
- Not clicking on emails and attachments from unreliable sources
- Making employees aware of the fact that more than half the global cases of malware hacking happen because employees click on unreliable links and/or use tools outside the ones secured by the company to complete tasks quickly
- Providing all employees a different password and username for reducing the risk of password leak and easy identification of the culprit system in case of malware attack
- Modeling the entire business on the basis on network segmentation. It means you do not store all the information in one place. You make different networks/departments and save the information of the concerned department in the respective network only. Also, all those networks should remain independent of each other.
These are a few proactive steps that can be used by companies to prevent hacking. But in case it happens, the extent of damage depends upon the alertness of your cybersecurity team. A few things that can be done to reduce damage after hacking include the following.
- Isolated networks give the security team more recovery time before hackers can take over the entire business and spread ransomware and other malware in all networks.
- Having a swift technological channel that you can use to notify all employees at once that the company is experiencing a security breach. Sooner the employees from all departments disengage their respective systems from the internet, lesser are the chances that the malware can spread from network to network.
- A cyberteam that’s a bunch of professionals including ethical hackers and coders working in tandem to recover the lost data by storing it in a backup system to minimize data leak.
