We at TOSS understand how critical it is to have a strong defense against cyber attacks, but that’s because we’re in the cybersecurity industry and we know how devastating a breach can be.

Most other professionals, be they lawyers, accountants, or executives, don’t spend too much time even thinking about it. They just download whatever free antivirus showed up on Google first then assume everything is taken care of.

That is NOT how you defend your business against cyber criminals – in fact, that’s how you become an easy prime target for hackers looking. To properly prevent and respond to a cyber security threat, you need to create a contingency plan.

Update Everything

The first step is to make sure you have downloaded and updated your firewalls and security measures to make sure everything is up-to-date. This also includes updating your operating systems. The success of breaches is exponentially greater against old technology, and since it costs nothing to upgrade, it’s an absolute necessity!

Disaster Recovery Plan

There are a wide range of calamities that could happen which would result in a digital takedown of your systems. This includes hacking, ransomware and malware attacks, but you also have to think about natural disasters, human error, and events like equipment failure and power outages. All of those need to be in your contingency plan and every employee needs to read these policies.

As we’ve earlier covered in a blog detailing the use of a Disaster Recovery Plan, a good plan should:

• Minimize the disruption and restore operations as quickly as possible.
• Ensure data recovery and security.
• Enable consistent, reliable backup processes.
• Quickly restore business as usual.

A cloud provider is also a great ally to have in your corner. Cloud providers are able to back up your data almost in real time and store it across multiple servers, which means that you can have your company up and running mere hours after disaster strikes.

Learn more about cyber attacks and data breaches: Buy the book ‘Easy Prey: How to Protect Your Business From Data Breach, Cybercrime and Employee Fraud’.

Policies and Education

There are a number of policies you need to be made aware of that most business leaders don’t even think about. Password update policies, computer usage policies, offsite work protocols (always use a secured network when working in public!), and upload/download policies are all very important to include.

Employees must be educated on all of these and be put through an annual training program, visiting each issue that may arise and how to avoid them. Human error is a major reason why businesses fall to malware and ransomware attacks, so the more you can do to prevent that the better.

It is also a good idea to practice routine disaster recovery training to make sure everyone knows what they need to do and how long it takes.

To learn more about cyber security threats and how to prevent them, you can contact TOSS C3 24/7 at 1-888-884-8677.