As technology becomes more inevitable in our everyday lives, especially as companies increasingly rely on technology and online systems to conduct their various businesses, meeting the minimum security standard becomes inevitable.
Due to the ever-changing nature of cybercrime, it has become critical to pay attention to basic security hygiene.
Read on to learn these standards and how you can begin implementing them in your organization.
Steps to increase your cyber hygiene
Require phishing-resistance MFA: Enabling multifactor (MFA) authentication can help prevent up to 99.9% of attacks. This is because MFA helps disrupt potential phishing attacks by requiring one to crack more than two factors of verification in order to gain access to a system.
Applying zero trust principles: Zero Trust is an integrated approach to security in all layers. Under the Zero Trust model, all transaction is critically and explicitly verified continuously; the least privileged access is enforced, and intelligence, advanced detection, and real-time threat response become a cornerstone of security.
Use modern anti-malware of XDR solutions: Threat actors move fast and tend to go undetected. Extended detection and response tools can help flag and automatically block malware attacks while providing insights to the security operations team. Monitoring these insights from threat detection systems is also essential to being able to respond to threats in a timely fashion.
Keep systems up to date: Unoatched and out-of-date systems can also be a reason many organizations fall to victim to cyber-attacks. For example, IoT/OT devices are becoming an increasingly popular threat vector for cybercriminals and botnets. When routers are unpatched and left exposed directly to the internet, threat actors can abuse them to gain access to networks, execute malicious attacks, and even support their operations.
Protect data: Today hybrid workspaces require data to be accessed from multiple devices, apps, and services from around the world. With so many platforms and access points, organizations need strong protections against data theft and leakage. A defense-in-depth approach is one way to fortify your data security.
Although threat actors continue to grow and use more sophisticated tools, simple measures such as enabling MFA, applying zero trust principles, modern anti-malware and XDR/EDR solutions, and protecting data can help prevent 98% of attacks.