There’s no shortage of examples of enterprises that have been burned by cybersecurity breaches in recent years. Since threats are getting more sophisticated, it’s the responsibility of organizations to react with better security measures.
Here are five enterprise cybersecurity mistakes to avoid.
Ignoring Permissions Settings.
Not everyone within an organization needs access to the same information. Depending on an individual’s role with an enterprise, it may or may not make sense to give them permissions into certain levels of internal software and data sets.
There has been a greater push for data democratization over the past few years, and there are some clear benefits to widening accessibility. When more employees have access to relevant data, it’s possible for them to find insights from that information that otherwise would have been completely impossible. The obvious drawback, however, is that giving people too much access can allow for sensitive information to get into the wrong hands.
A study from IBM showed that the majority of cyber attacks actually originate from inside an organization. This could be disastrous if an employee with hacking intentions is given access to swaths of sensitive data. It’s important to only give admin and other permission statuses when there’s a real benefit to doing so. Otherwise, it’s just creating risk.
Failing to Educate Employees.
Education is important in every realm. But this is particularly true in the world of cybersecurity. Unless an employee specifically works in IT or network security, it’s unlikely they are an expert in these areas. Therefore, enterprises need to take time to explain various dangers associated with cyber-attacks.
Phishing and social engineering attacks are some of the most critical for employee education. These can often seem like a coworker or manager sending a link or asking for information. But in reality, they can allow hackers to exploit network weaknesses and wreak havoc on a business.
It’s important that organizations take the time to educate their employees on the dangers of cyber threats. This shouldn’t be a one-time thing. It should be ongoing and updated as new threats emerge.
Forgoing Beneficial Tools.
An enterprise needs to have the right tools in its toolbox if it expects to fend off cyber-attacks. It’s naïve to believe that hackers and other scammers are going to leave your organization alone. Someone wants to have access to the sensitive information help within your company. Havin the right tools can help keep them out.
This is truer today than ever before due to the Internet of Things (IoT). The number of devices attached to the IoT makes it ever more difficult for enterprises to keep up with so many potential vulnerabilities. It’s wise for organizations to employ some form of cyber risk management through an expert security operations center (SOC) as a service provider. SOC as a service ensures your enterprise is always ready for attacks lurking in the shadows.
Only Focusing on Certain Areas of Concern.
Obsessing over certain things while ignoring others leads to all kinds of problems, regardless of setting. Think about a weightlifter who only does bicep curls. They’re still going to be very weak even if they have the biggest biceps in the world. The same principle applies to enterprise cybersecurity.
You want to spread your resources and focus to all places that need it. There can be a tendency to spend too much time on IT. While this is certainly a key factor, dumping all your time and resources here will lead to imbalances and weakness within your organization.
Assuming Things Will Work Without Testing Them.
You wouldn’t jump out of a plane without being confident in your parachute. In the same way, you shouldn’t just assume your cybersecurity measures are going to work without any kind of stress testing.
Running simulated scenarios can let you see where things work and where they need some improvement. Doing this can also help in developing your response framework for how you react in the event of a real attack.
Even though enterprises are the ones that make headlines when they experience a cyber-attack, small and mid-sized businesses also need to take major precautions. In fact, they’re even more vulnerable in some ways because they don’t have as many resources to recover from and stop attacks. All businesses in the modern era need to be aware of these cybersecurity mistakes and how to avoid them.
