Proactive cybersecurity measures mitigate risk of a cyberattack – cybersecurity
Lately, the media has been crawling with stories about companies’ responses – or transparent lack thereof, to cyberattacks, especially when hackers demand millions of Rand in exchange for the data they’ve taken hostage. But some business owners don’t realise that many of these incidents could be avoided if proactive steps were taken in advance.
Let’s take a closer look at the proactive approach to online security and find out what risk management steps businesses can take to keep criminals at bay and protect sensitive information, even if the worst-case scenario comes to pass.
Proactive versus reactive security
For many of us, responding to a security threat – be it a physical break-in or an online data theft attempt – means pushing the panic button.
While putting boots on the ground is a reassuring strategy for management, the reality is that once a cyberattack has occurred the potential options for resolving it are already quite limited. This is because compromised data that’s already in the hands of criminals is extremely difficult to recover without spending a large amount of money on system recovery or caving in and paying the ransom – which only encourages hackers to attack other businesses.
Protecting your business assets from the relentless wave of cyberattacks currently faced by companies, from state entities to SMEs in South Africa, is an essential part of risk mitigation. A proactive approach, which could also be called closing every possible gap, consists of several aspects:
- Cyber security investments. These include firewalls, antivirus software, and most crucially, encrypted offsite storage, which will allow you to restore your system and critical files in the wake of a cyberattack.
- Employee training focusing on the signs of a cyberattack or phishing attempt will help your staff to be risk-savvy when they use the internet and reduce the ever-real threat of them falling to social engineering attacks.
- Plan ahead. Even if the worst happens and your business falls prey to a cyberattack, incident response planning will help you recover your data fast.
Cyberattack investment: worth every cent in peace of mind
Implementing rigorous cybersecurity measures may come at a certain cost, but the benefit of having a fully secured business that has the potential to withstand a cyberattack is worth the investment.
The cost to your business in terms of financial and reputational damage can run into six figures or higher in the worst case cybercrime scenario.
By comparison, a small monthly investment in encrypted backup and a cyber incident response plan will pay huge dividends in peace of mind from day one.
Secure data storage will tangibly reduce the damage hackers can do to your business by keeping a current version of your crucial data safe and accessible – to you and only you – in the cloud.
To learn more about our range of secure cloud storage offerings for businesses, visit our product page today.