The revolution in the technology domain has affected businesses and convinced them to operate their all processes through online platforms. However, the idea of making work easier and more accessible also comes with some disadvantages, like security threats, system downtime, etc. That's why cybersecurity has become a current interest or concern for today’s business landscape.

Cyber threats, like data breaching, phishing, and hacking statistics are increasing in organizations. In the year 2019, more than 15 billion organizational records were exposed and that was a 284% increase in comparison to the previous records, even if the actual breaches increase to 1% a year - according to the RiskBased Security Report. This statistic clears a vital responsibility for organizations to combat their security systems and aware employees of the threats that they are facing on a daily basis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cyberattacks has spiked a lot around 400% till March 2020 as compared to the year 2019’s statistics.

Furthermore, Google revealed that it is blocking more than 18 million cyberattacks every day through just COVID-19-related phishing emails, Reed Smith- The International Law Firm’s report investigated. Such Cybersecurity insights are important in understanding the cybersecurity loopholes that can leave organizations vulnerable to attacks. Businesses should take note of it and must implement training programs to build awareness, prevention, and best practices for employees to make organizations cyber secure.

Google’s Best Cybersecurity Practices for Organizations & Users:

According to Google's report, they have defined top-5 best practices for organizations & users to protect their confidential data:

1. Regular Security Checkups

2. Avoid downloading files from unfamiliar senders by using Gmail's doc previews

3. Avoid disclosing your log-in credentials to fake URLs that are pretending to be the original ones by just changing smaller and hard to noticeable changes

4. Report malicious or phishing emails

5. Be part of Google’s APP (Advanced Protection Program) to understand the attacker’s malicious approaches

What Are the Cybersecurity Best Practices for Businesses?

After doing a lot of digging in the domain of Cybersecurity we found these cybersecurity best practices for businesses:

Design Data Combating Strategies:

If a business system does not have any threat protection strategy, then business leaders should consider several threats that are waiting for retaliation. Businesses’ data combating strategies should be specific to the security threats and can also use the security standards during the design. If businesses are designing cybersecurity strategies from scratch, then yes, it is a tedious and mind-bursting task but, in the end, it will benefit against breaching activities. At the time of designing strategies, it is advisable to not focus on more complex strategies at first, instead make a relatable strategy that can empower the system against security threats and then add the changes gradually.

Plan Employee Training Programs:

If the employees are not well trained and less aware of threats, then there are possibilities of falling into phishing schemes or malware attacks. As a result, businesses might face data or fund losses, which can impact organizations' growth as well. That’s why experts consider employees a valuable asset in defeating cyber-attacks, so it is necessary to train them extensively.

Set Authorization Controls:

In the cyberattack case of Target and Home Depot in 2013 & 2014, hackers took control over these companies through third-party vendor authorizations. Well, it is common for internet surfing users to give authorization to third parties without even knowing how to handle cybersecurity. In order to avoid such problems, companies can make some rules or limit the employees surfing activities through firewall settings. Furthermore, many companies are working remotely after the COVID-19 pandemic and they have issued laptops and mobile devices to their employees.

The concerning point is that companies don't have information like employees are using whose internet connectivity and third-party connection access can be an invitation to the cyberattack. That's why companies need to secure their data and systems by evaluating multi-level authorizations.

Embrace Backup Activities:

Many companies face phishing attacks and it is nearly impossible to stop them. However, the easiest way to avoid the post-crisis of phishing attacks is only to take regular backups. It is important to approach different plans to create multiple backup copies of data around the globe or use AWS cloud storage which offers data storage in two places, including region and edge locations. They create data shadows by keeping copies in several locations, making it harder for attackers to hack the data and constantly check for glitches to repair.

Be Cyber Secure:

As companies are digitally transforming and shifting their business processes from traditional offline systems to online systems, protecting data and business resources are the most important security measure for now. Having a full-proof cybersecurity strategy in an organization is a great step in securing it from various cyber-attacks. CloudStakes Technology is the leading cybersecurity services provider in India that offers cyber security services to all sizes of businesses with 24x7 dedicated support and helps clients to cyber secure their business IT infrastructure.