We’ve all heard of enterprises paying huge fines or even going out of business because of a simple hack to their systems. There are simply far too many threats out there to ignore the risks – from ransomware to phishing, it could cost you your livelihood. Prevention is key and in this article we’ll show you 10 Ways to Prevent Cyber Attacks and how to safeguard your business effectively.

 

What is a Cyber Attack?

A cyber attack is a deliberate exploitation of your systems and/or network. Cyber attacks use malicious code to compromise your computer, logic or data and steal, leak or hold your data hostage. Cyber attack prevention is essential for every business and organisation.

Here are some examples of common cyber attacks and types of data breaches:

• Identity theft, fraud, extortion
• Malware, phishing, spamming, spoofing, spyware, trojans and viruses
• Stolen hardware, such as laptops or mobile devices
• Denial-of-service and distributed denial-of-service attacks
• Breach of access
• Password sniffing
• System infiltration
• Website defacement
• Private and public Web browser exploits
• Instant messaging abuse
• Intellectual property (IP) theft or unauthorized access

 

1. Train your staff

One of the most common ways cyber criminals get access to your data is through your employees. They’ll send fraudulent
emails impersonating someone in your organisation and will either ask for personal details or for access to certain
files. Links often seem legitimate to an untrained eye and it’s easy to fall into the trap. This is why employee
awareness is vital.

One of the most efficient ways to protect against cyber attacks and all types of data breaches is to train your employees
on cyber attack prevention and inform them of current cyber attacks.

They need to:

• Check links before clicking them
• Check email addresses from the received email
• Use common sense before sending sensitive information. If a request seems odd, it probably is. It’s better to
  check via a phone call with the person in question before actioning the “request”

Leaf can provide bespoke cyber awareness training for organisations of all sizes. Contact us to find out more.

 

2. Keep your software and systems fully up to date

Often cyber attacks happen because your systems or software aren’t fully up to date, leaving weaknesses. Hackers exploit
these weaknesses so cybercriminals exploit these weaknesses to gain access to your network. Once they are in – it’s
often too late to take preventative action.

To counteract this, it’s smart to invest in a patch management
system that will manage all software and system updates, keeping your system resilient and up to date.

Leaf offer patch management as part of their managed security
solution.

 

3. Ensure Endpoint Protection

Endpoint protection protects networks that are remotely bridged to devices. Mobile devices, tablets and laptops that are
connected to corporate networks give access paths to security threats. These paths need protected with specific endpoint
protection software.

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4. Install a Firewall

There are so many different types of sophisticated data breaches and new ones surface every day and even make comebacks.

Putting your network behind a firewall is one of the most effective ways to defend yourself from any cyber attack. A
firewall system will block any brute force attacks made on your network and/or systems before it can do any damage,
something we can help you with.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/cloud-adoption-best-practices/

5. Backup your data

In the event of a disaster (often a cyber attack) you must have your data backed up to avoid serious downtime, loss of
data and serious financial loss.

 

6. Control access to your systems

Believe it or not, one of the attacks that you can receive on your systems can be physical, having control over who can
access your network is really really important. Somebody can simply walk into your office or enterprise and plug in a
USB key containing infected files into one of your computers allowing them access to your entire network or infect it.

It’s essential to control who has access to your computers. Having a perimeter security system installed is a very good
way to stop cybercrime as much as break ins!

https://www.ntiva.com/blog/6-tips-for-improving-cloud-computing-security

7. Wifi Security

Who doesn’t have a wifi enabled device in 2020? And that’s exactly the danger, any device can get infected by connecting
to a network, if this infected device then connects to your business network your entire system is at serious risk.

Securing your wifi networks and hiding them is one of the safest things you can do for you systems. With developing more
and more everyday there’s thousands of devices that can connect to your network and compromise you.

8. Employee personal accounts

Every employee needs their own login for every application and program. Several users connecting under the same
credentials can put your business at risk.

Having separate logins for each staff member will help you reduce the number of attack fronts. Users only log in once
each day and will only use their own set of logins. Greater security isn’t the only benefit, you’ll also get improved
usability.

9. Access Management

One of the risks as a business owner and having employees is them installing software on business owned devices that
could compromise your systems.

Having managed admin rights and blocking your staff installing or even accessing certain data on your network is
beneficial to your security. It’s your business, protect it!

 

10. Passwords

Having the same password setup for everything can be dangerous. Once a hacker figures out your password, they now have
access to everything in your system and any application you use.

Having different passwords setup for every application you use is a real benefit to your security, and changing them often will maintain a high level of protection against external