Experts predict that cybercrimes will cost the world up to 10.5 trillion USD (13.35 trillion CAD) by 2025. With only three years until then, it’s more critical than ever for every small- and medium-sized business (SMB) to have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that can thwart costly cyberattacks.
But while investing in top-notch cybersecurity solutions to combat the biggest cyberthreats doesn’t come cheap, prioritizing the following solutions can give you the most bang for your buck.
Implementing role-based access control
The role-based access control model is a means of restricting system access to authorized users only. There are three elements critical to an effective implementation of this model: user behavior analytics, privileged account management, and the principle of least privilege.
User behavior analytics enables organizations to detect abnormal activity and prevent breaches. While this may keep hackers out of your network, employees with authorized access to your company's data and systems play a key role as well.
This is where privileged access management comes in. It ensures that all privileged users can be managed and tracked by IT administrators and security officers with the authority to change or revoke their access. Without privileged account management, firms would have no way of telling who accessed sensitive data or when a breach occurred.
Finally, the principle of least privilege ensures that employees cannot perform any action unless they are given the proper level of privilege for that task. With the least privilege principle in place, attackers must steal several different credentials before gaining access to your systems, which makes carrying out a cyberattack considerably more difficult.
Connecting via virtual private networks
A virtual private network (VPN) provides a secure network and protects data from being stolen or tampered with by any third party. In a VPN connection, any unencrypted data is sent through an encrypted channel, thus protecting information and preventing data from being read by unauthorized users.
Having a VPN connection is critical if you’re implementing remote or hybrid work, as it enables employees to have a secure connection between their remote devices and your company network. What’s more, VPNs can preserve data integrity and help prevent distributed denial-of-service attacks by ensuring that your connection is always available and secure.
Investing in cybersecurity awareness training
Deploying cybersecurity tools is vital in keeping your business safe, but technology safeguards are not sufficient to keep threats at bay. You must also have employees who practice cybersecurity hygiene and won’t commit mistakes that can compromise company security.
A culture of cybersecurity awareness is key when it comes to online protection. In 2022, it’s paramount to conduct regular cybersecurity awareness training sessions to educate all employees on how best to prevent attacks, especially if they’re working outside of the office. It’s also critical to equip your staff with the ability to identify and handle threats before these can cause significant damage.
Partnering with a cybersecurity expert
Partnering with a managed IT services provider (MSP) that specializes in cybersecurity ensures that your business remains protected against evolving threats. Apart from helping organizations plan proactively for future problems, many providers offer security assessment services designed to identify vulnerabilities in a business’s IT infrastructure. With regular security audits, you'll be able to ensure that every aspect of your network is protected against potential threats — all while gaining access to valuable information that helps you develop a proactive and effective security strategy.
What’s more, the best MSPs can assist their clients through any number of potential cyber disasters. Whether your company is hit by a malware infection, has its data misused by hackers, or falls victim to a phishing scam, a great MSP can help with physical and digital incident response.
As cyberattacks become more sophisticated and frequent, SMBs must be better prepared for the challenges that these bring. There's no question that MSPs will play an increasingly important role as cybersecurity threats continue to increase over time, so partner with one that offers EXponentially Better™ services: XBASE Technologies. Talk to our experts today.