Know Thy Enemy

The first question you must ask yourself is “what (or who) am I up against”? Any expert tactician will tell you that you must know your enemy before you can protect against them. This is extremely true when it comes to cyber security. Everyone involved needs to know exactly what they’re protecting themselves against. It doesn’t matter if you have your own in-house or outsourced IT staff, there is no “one-size-fits-all” cyber security plan. Yet, with our help, you can develop a strategy that works for your business.

Together, we review what types of attacks are most common in your industry. Some common threats are social engineering, brute force intrusion, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) breach, key loggers, and the biggest one; ransomware. Ideally, your team would review these threat types a few times a year.

Cover Your Bases

Have you have reviewed the cyber security threats in your industry and the devices that are prone to these attacks? If so, you are ready to get locked down with your own network security plan. Beginning with a full network security audit, you can get a crystal-clear picture of what holes currently exist and what to prioritize first. For example, having a Security Firewall to protect your network should be a high priority. Next, a complex password policy and forcing a password change every 90 days. Depending on your industry, you may be required to change this more frequently. With our cyber security consulting, we will offer our advice and recommendations on which areas need to be worked on. How you want to prioritize your cyber security is up to you. Keep in mind what threats target your industry most and remove those weaknesses in your business.

Also, before rolling out your cyber security plan, you will want to create a baseline before making any changes. As you increase your protection, you can then see the improvements. Simulate a handful of real-life scenarios and test them on your network. As a result, you can begin to pinpoint weak links in your business network. Armed with all this information about your business network, we are ready to customize your own plan.

Evaluate Your Assets

Once you look at how a lack of cyber security can harm your business, you can begin to protect it. Look at how each type of threat can affect your network, intellectual property, and proprietary data (like customers and financials). Part of our cyber security plan is to work with you.

First, we start by creating an inventory or physical map for each device that connects to the internet. Then, what type of cyber security you have (or need) for protecting those devices? Finally, what type of data do they have access to (regulated, mission-critical, low-importance, etc…)? Only after you have an outline of your threats and the devices within your business can you start to address the issues. What is the most critical part of your business? Which threats can harm us the most? How many devices are susceptible to these attacks? When you can answer these questions, then you can properly implement our cyber security plan. Don’t worry though, we will help guide you each step of the way.

Completing Your Cyber Security Plan

Each step within this guide provides us with a critical piece of a puzzle needed to forge your own cyber security plan. The State of Rhode Island offers a sample of their own Cyber Security plan from 2015. With an experienced cyber security consultant like us, we can increase your company’s defense against the most common cyber-attacks. Furthermore, your cyber security plan does not stop at the hardware level. With our plan, we give you the tools needed to properly train your staff in positive security practices. Most of all, we will assist you in all the following areas:

• Security awareness including acceptable use policies (AUP), routine training, and seminars that coach everyone — from receptionists to CEOs — about password management, social engineering, and mobile device usage is a must-have in all business environments.
• “Front-line” defenses like intrusion prevention systems and hardware security firewalls that inspect everything trying to bypass its way into your network. This includes having an anti-virus software built into your security firewall.
• Routine checkups for software updates and patches for common software like Microsoft, Mac OS, Adobe, Java, etc. to minimize the chance of leaving a hole in your network open.
• Web-filtering services that blacklist dangerous and inappropriate sites for anyone on your network.
• Antivirus software that specializes in the threats most common to your industry.

In conclusion, a good cyber security plan allows you to focus on preventing downtime events and security breaches instead of reacting to them. Once it’s in place, your technology will begin to increase productivity and efficiency across your entire business. Our cyber security offering is just one part of our “Office Solutions” IT maintenance, support, and consultation plan. Start enhancing your business network by requesting a free “Cyber Security Evaluation and Security Audit” from us.