The First 2 Steps Towards Optimizing Your Overall Cybersecurity

More than ever, the priority for businesses, in IT terms, is to develop resilient cybersecurity strategies to reduce the risk of malicious security breaches. We have previously talked about a multilayered protection concept comparing it to the layers of an onion. This staged approach is based on additional possible coverage in the event that the first layers in your line of defence are compromised. Let’s examine two of these domains; your personnel and your perimeter and what interventions to focus on as a company.

Personnel

Given that human error is unfortunately inevitable, training and raising awareness about security practices can limit negative impacts. Your personnel can then become the best line of defense against potential cyberattacks. Other effective policies such as managing passwords and multifactor authentication are also good practices to promote.  

1. Managing passwords

In order to complicate the work of cybercriminals, a password should be strong and difficult for automated tools to decipher. It is better to opt for longer and more complex passwords made up of lower case and upper case letters, special characters and numbers. Furthermore, a policy of regularly updating security codes and integrating password managers is valuable and feasible options. 

2. Multifactor authentication

Activating multifactor authentication is a simple way to ensure your cybersecurity system against unlawful breaches. With this approach, the user must provide two or more verification factors to gain access to an online resource; the more layers of security you have between hackers and your personal information, the better that information is protected.

Perimeter

The perimeter of an IT infrastructure represents the border between an internal network and an external one. This virtual line of defense puts in place the necessary safeguards against cybercriminal attacks. Here are some of the various tools used for establishing a perimeter: 

• Firewall: a virtual barrier between a trusted network and an untrusted external network, configured to respect the norms of your established cybersecurity system.
• Spam filter: a mechanism that detects undesirable, unsolicited and infected emails and prevents them from reaching a user’s inbox. 
• Dark Web monitoring: a service that monitors the  dark web for any user information that could have been compromised or sold. 
• Intrusion testing (ethical hacking): a simulated and authorized cyberattack to evaluate the security level of your system.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for a chat with a MicroAge representative. We will be able to advise and guide you in developing a cutting edge, multilayered cybersecurity strategy that is adapted to your organizational reality.