Cyber Attacks can be a real problem for all companies and while Cyber Insurance is available to respond to an attack, companies should still be taking every measure to avoid an incident from happening at all; or at the very least to reduce the severity of an attack.

There are different types of Cyber Attacks:

There are several types of cyber incidents that could target a business, but we’ve outlined four of the most common here:

Top 10 Tips to Prevent A Cyber Attack

1. Leverage Proactive Technology

There are hundreds of companies out there who specialise in cyber security – use them to your advantage! These companies offer all sorts of proactive technology for preventing cyber attacks: antivirus and antispyware software, intrusion detection systems (sometimes they happen without you even noticing), intrusion protection systems, spam filters, and multi-factor authentication software to name just a handful.

2. Staff Training

Technology is great, however, all the technology in the world won’t protect you from one of the most common causes of a data breach or cyber incident: human error. Therefore, it is important to continually educate your staff on cyber and data security – preferably with training programs specialised to their actual role. This doesn’t have to be super complex “tech-y” stuff either; simple preventative measures like creating strong passwords, safeguarding private & personal information and questioning the authenticity of emails can make a huge difference.

3. Cyber Security Audits

As your company grows, it is important to make sure your cyber security is keeping pace. Having a Cyber Security Audit is a good way to identify any weaknesses in your security measures to minimise the risk of a cyber incident or data breach. There are good consultants out there who specialise in identifying the holes in your system and procedures, and who will also assist in building out your security measures as your company grows.

4. Protect Important Information to Avoid Data Breaches

You have most likely heard about some of the massive data breaches affecting millions of consumers over the last few years. This has never been more relevant as it is today, and protecting personal & private information is something that all companies – not just multinationals – need to take seriously. Methods for doing this can range from encrypting data when stored or sent online, refusing to collect certain information (i.e. credit cards) and implementing security measures to protect your data from hackers (see our first point above).

5. Vulnerability & Patch Management

How secure is your system? Vulnerability management is a proactive approach to managing network security, while patch management takes care of fixing these holes. It is fairly straightforward to implement one of these processes: check, identify and verify any vulnerabilities, mitigate losses from these vulnerabilities, then finally apply “patches” to fix the problem.

6. Identity Verification

This is without a doubt the most important preventative measure for phishing and social engineering attacks. If you receive an email/call to pay an invoice or update payment information, you should always verify who the person is before actioning their request to make sure it’s not fraudulent – don’t trust the person who is contacting you without verifying they are who they say. For example, find a contact you know in the company and call them directly to verify the request, but do not do this by responding to the email or calling a number included in the email.

7. Third Party Vendors/Supplier Management

You can implement all these tools to protect your information, but how do you make sure the companies you work with are doing the same? It is important to consider how the vendors and suppliers you work with are using, storing and protecting your private and important information or data.

8. Back-Up Your Data

It is absolutely essential to back-up your data and information these days, but there are different ways to do this and some ways are better than others. Arguably the best option is cloud storage, as it can include end-to-end encryption of your data to keep it safe, external back-ups, and a server dedicated to saving data.

9. Physical Security

Your software isn’t the only way for an attacker to access your system and wreak havoc. They can access your system using ID badges, credit cards, private files, mobile devices and computers. Your personnel should be trained to keep these items secure at all times.

10. Policies, Practices and Procedures

Who doesn’t love writing policies and procedures? Although this can be a tedious exercise that many overlook, it really does encompass a lot of the above points and can be invaluable for protecting your company from a cyber event. Most companies should implement some, if not all, of the following: Cyber Crisis Management Plan (you’ve been hacked – now what?), data breach reporting plan (reporting is almost always required/recommended), multifactor authentication for staff, password guidelines, email guidelines, among others.

What Happens if a Cyber Attack Occurs Anyway?

You can take every possible step in preventing a Cyber Attack and one may still occur. This is why it’s important to manage this risk by putting a Cyber Insurance policy in place. Visit our Cyber webpage for details.