Cybersecurity is vital to businesses of all sizes, which means that cybersecurity attack and defense strategies are crucial. While understanding how to respond to a cyber threat once it occurs is essential, proactive measures that prevent cybersecurity attacks are even better.
To take proactive cybersecurity measures, you will need to thoroughly understand the range of threats you may encounter. This involves a comprehensive threat analysis to get an idea of your top cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. You will want to know how many cybersecurity attacks per day are common based on your industry, location, and relevant exposure. You will need to know where your defenses are weakest, and where you are well covered. And, you will need to formulate a categorical cybersecurity attack and defense strategy.
One of the most important proactive cybersecurity measures you can take is the education of your staff and team. As Forbes puts it, “Focus on your employees. Your employees are your first line of defense. If they don’t know how to respond in a cybersecurity-conscious manner, your company is at risk. If your employees are not educated, it's going to be very difficult to protect your systems against the variety of threats that cybercriminals are using to steal your data.”
Make sure that every member of your team understands the top cybersecurity threats that your company might face, and how they can help prevent them. Ensure that they know about:
Then, once your team is aware of the biggest cybersecurity threats, provide them with all available tools to prevent them. Update your software systems, patch your systems, boost your firewalls, and secure your data.
After identifying potential threats, and equipping your team to help combat them, proactive cybersecurity measures involve actively hunting for threats before they occur.
Identify malicious actors lurking within, and compromising your systems. Have an experienced team comb through your data, networks, and other digital assets to detect cyber threats that might have gotten past regular perimeter defenses (like your now-aware and attentive employees).
Penetration testing can be an excellent proactive cybersecurity measure. This process involves engaging skilled (and vetted) hackers to deliberately attempt to penetrate your company’s protective measures.
The idea here is that if friendly hackers can breach your defenses, then certainly malicious ones can as well. Builtin.com explains “it’s helpful to think of a penetration test like a preventative visit to the dentist: It can probe the network for soft spots and identify holes in the security network, but it also reinforces a stronger security network as a whole.”
If all of this seems daunting, then it’s time to take the very best proactive cybersecurity measure–calling in the cavalry. Enlisting a team of experts to help at every stage can take the pressure off you and your IT team, and better defend your company.
Let our team of cybersecurity experts start taking proactive measures to safegaurd your organisation. Contact StickmanCyber today to learn more about our Threat Monitoring, Detection, & Response services.