Today, the digital world is more than just an extension for businesses and relationships. It has managed to become one of the main channels and spaces to share information. With such a huge expansion, however, comes the need for a right and polished system of security.
What is digital security?
Digital security is a combination of three key principles: Privacy law compliance, computer security principles, and user protection laws.
Digital privacy Law Compliance Regulations are a group of laws governing the privacy of the personal information of people.
What are the most common threats to digital security for small companies?
Malware attacks
Malware is usually caused by threats like viruses and trojans. These attacks occur when hackers use code to break into private networks with the intention of stealing or destroying data. Their origin is often related to spam emails, fraudulent downloads, or connecting to other infected devices.
Phishing
In this method, a hacker sends a fraudulent email or direct message to an employee from the company with a malicious link. These attacks can result in data leaks, system freezes, or virus installations. Though this method sounds simple, it is one of the main causes of small businesses’ data breaches.
Ransomware
Here, hackers usually inflict computers through email. As the name suggests, when this holds sensitive data, ransom, databases, passwords, etc. Thanks to the access to such sensitive information, they can result in significant damage. What hackers ask to release the data is to be paid between 24 to 48 hours or the data could be deleted or leaked.
So, how to stay safe from such attacks?
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States, the best way to keep digital information safe relies on 5 steps:
1. Identify
You should start by identifying every device, account, and data that should be monitored. Make sure to list all the equipment, account credentials, the VPN and WiFi network, cloud storage, and finally your website.
2. Protect
The base for protection relies on different aspects such as having an employee in charge of all cybersecurity initiatives, installing antivirus software, having a specially authorized staff to log in to the network, implementing spam filters, performing security audits with frequency, etc.
3. Detect
What is the first line of defense against cyberattacks? Being able to detect on time by monitoring the system regularly. This way, when an unusual or suspicious activity will set the alarms and you can change a password, log out of all devices and stay safe.
4. Respond
The response should be as fast as possible. The steps to follow are:
- Identify everything that has been compromised and the type of attack.
- Inform every user of your network.
- Take the source computer offline to isolate the attack.
- Check for any backdoor hacker.
- Identify the damage.
5. Recover
It is no surprise that a cyberattack is a horrible and unfortunate incident. However, the best way to move on is to reinforce security and learn from it so you can prevent such incidents to happen again. What to do while recovering? You can inform regulatory agencies and, of course, inform customers and clients.
Want to improve your digital security? Contact us and let us help you.
