Today we are once again sharing a post from Gael Tannenbaum, with IT Direct, who is a member of the CTmrg Service Team.
In today’s environment, it is more critical than ever to prevent a cybersecurity breach. Malicious actors are ramping up efforts to take advantage of the frenetic pace of life, changing workforce habits, and increasing communications from new sources.
Take a look at our list of Top 5 things you need to make sure you company is doing to prevent a cyber incident. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure!
#5 – Good House Keeping – critical to preventing a ransomware attack from affecting your systems is patching and other basic IT house keeping. This includes more than just ‘Windows’patching — yours firewalls, wireless hardware, and third-party software are as important. Also, make sure regular scans for old service accounts, open ports, and possible rogue devices are being completed.
#4 – Email Security – We are well beyond ‘SPAM filters’ now. A well-architected email security platform defends against all kinds of things beyond unwanted advertisements. It should include things like link protection, impersonation protection, attachment protection and more. It may not catch everything under the sun, but it will reduce a huge amount of risk — including providing critical email fail-over.
#3 – Next Gen Anti-virus/anti-malware protection – Definition updates are so Year 2000. Nowadays we should be leveraging new technology to protect against the current mainstream threats like fileless attacks and zero day payloads. Get current generation software to protect your systems from viruses and malware.
#2 – Education – One of the most important methods to prevent a successful attack is to make sure everyone in your company, from the top down, knows the risks, what to look out for, and follows the axiom “if you see something, say something!” Annual training refreshers just don’t cut it — regular training and simulated Phishing tests are a must!
#1 – Be prepared for the worst – make sure your backup and disaster recovery systems are top quality. If disaster does strike, and your business is impacted a quick recovery without data loss will be the difference between a bad day and a six or seven figure financial loss (or worse). Make sure your RTO and RPO objectves are known, and can be met.
Gael Tannenbaum with IT Direct, is a member of the CTmrg Service Team for the upcoming CTmrg Manufacturers Only Workforce Summit. CTmrg is dedicated to combining resources to help build the strongest possible manufacturing environment.
Additional information is available on our Covid-19 Resources page.