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4 things you need to prep for your cybersecurity strategy

So you have a business, and things are moving along just great. You’re selling things, signing checks, and making money. But when it comes to that cybersecurity strategy of yours, things are … uh … nonexistent.

Which is a problem.

Every business operating in the 21st century should have some semblance of a cybersecurity strategy. If yours doesn’t, then it’ll only be a matter of time before your company is breached, hacked, and left to fail.

This being said, while you’re prepping to build that cybersecurity strategy (because I’m sure that’s what you’re doing right this very second), here are four things you need around.

Suspicion is your best friend.

If you’re going to have anything, please make it a healthy dose of suspicion. With enough suspicion by your side, you’ll at least have what you need to avoid making mistakes online. In other words, you’ll be less likely to click on corrupt links, download malicious attachments, or give away information to the wrong person.

But obviously, you can’t be suspicious of anything if you don’t have a baseline knowledge of how threats work. Soooo … get to learning. At the bare minimum, you should have an understanding of what phishing and social engineering are.

Workplace training, cybersecurity edition.

If you want to take things a step further than suspicion, then you need to go above and beyond simply knowing what a cyber threat is and learn how it works. And this doesn’t just involve you; it involves everyone in your business.

Your entire staff should be fully trained on cyber threats (both new and old) and provided with tips on how to avoid these threats. Since the online world constantly changes, your trainings should realistically be conducted at least once a quarter. They don’t have to take up too much time, and you don’t need an expert in the field to provide the training. A little research, some prep work, and a 15-minute presentation will go a long way.

Is it even a process if no one sees it?

Now if you want to take things even further than suspicion and training, then it’s time to start to building processes. These will help you and your coworkers understand how things should be done and provide them with specific guidelines on how to handle certain situations.

For example, you could build a process for creating passwords. Within this process, you can cover elements such as how long each password should be and what type of characters should be used. Other processes could cover on-the-go work with mobile devices and data storage.

You. Need. Help.

Securing an entire business is hard work. It requires a lot of stuff – like monitoring, software, tweaking, updating, and researching … all of which takes up a lot of time, energy, and money. This being said, if you really want to avoid threats and keep your data private, then you’ll need professional help.

Whether you’re only looking for initial help (like a network audit and some quality advice) or you’re looking for ongoing assistance securing your network (like with a managed security provider), it’s important to obtain some degree of help. A professional 3rd party can provide you with long lasting, high-quality solutions to a problem that will only get worse with time.

If you’d like to learn more about cybersecurity or if you’re looking for assistance securing your network, we can help. We have decades of combined experience securing networks of all shapes and sizes. Send us a message and let us know what we can help you with.