7 Cybersecurity Strategies to Prevent Ransomware Attacks and Account Takeovers
As an individual, the thought of how disruptive and costly it would be if your data got stolen is scary enough. Corporations and organizations have even more to fear; if their computer systems fall victim to a ransomware attack or account takeover, then thousands of clients, employees, or anyone else whose data is stored on the computer network, can become victims of identity theft. The organization will bear legal responsibility for it because of its inadequate cybersecurity measures. These are seven strategies that your company can implement to help prevent cybersecurity attacks, preferably with the help of a cybersecurity team with experience in cybersecurity issues.
1 Cybersecurity Audit
Ignoring a problem in the hopes that it will go away is a terrible business decision, but many business executives do just that when it comes to cybersecurity. They don’t want to find out how vulnerable their networks are, so hackers find out first. It is better to get the ugly truth from a third-party cybersecurity company by having them do a vulnerability assessment. Only once you acknowledge the problem can you begin to fix it.
2 Invest in Cybersecurity
Unless your company is very small, just having one employee in charge of cybersecurity is not enough. It would be best if you had an entire cybersecurity team in each location that your business operates. They should conduct ongoing training with the rest of their employees as technology evolves and new threats emerge.
3 Cybersecurity Fire Drill
Your cybersecurity team should develop a strategy for recovering from an account takeover or a ransomware attack. At least once a year, they should run a “fire drill” where all the employees practice implementing recovery measures.
4 Threat Intelligence Practices
Your cybersecurity team should engage in threat intelligence measures, where they lurk on the dark web and find out what the hackers already know and how they found it out. You should use firewalls for ongoing threat detection and enlist threat intelligence services to determine if your company has suffered a data compromise. If your company’s data has been compromised, you should implement your emergency recovery plan.
5 Understand Account Takeovers
Account takeovers often begin when hackers program their bots to guess the login credentials of third-party data storage sites millions of times until they get a hit. These sites usually don’t have multi-factor authentication. Once they have access to the stored data, they can steal the identities of all the people whose data they have accessed.
6 Be Aware of the Dangers of Stolen Passwords
Everyone knows that you should not reuse passwords, but almost everyone does it. If hackers find out one password of yours, they can access all the accounts for which you have reused that password.
7 Cybersecurity Insurance
Your company should carry cybersecurity insurance to protect you from losses and liabilities in the event of a ransomware attack or account takeover.
Contact us at Perspective Omni Media if you are involved in an account takeover or ransomware attack.