Did you know, in 2023 every 6 minutes an cyber incident was reported? With cyber threats on the rise, keeping your business proactive and on the frontline is more important than ever.
So how can you make your business difficult to target? We're here to help with practical tips to protect your business from cyber risks. From securing your devices to fostering a strong security culture, we've got simple steps to keep your business safe.
Here at Blackbird IT, we want to help your cybersecurity efforts. Get a look into how secure your business is and find ways you can make your business more stronger and difficult to target with our Free Cybersecurity Assessment.
How Secure Is Your Device Fleet?
The basis of a strong cybersecurity posture starts with your devices. The best way to protect PCs is with security software that lives on the PC and doesn’t hinder your PC, laptop or network’s performance.
At Blackbird IT, we've partnered with HP, powered by Intel® Core™ processors, to ensure our clients have the most secure devices possible. HP’s advanced security features provide in-built protection, including:
- HP Sure Start: The industry’s first self-healing BIOS that automatically detects, stops, and recovers from BIOS attacks.
- HP Sure Click: Isolates web content in a virtual machine, safeguarding your device from malicious links and threats.
- HP Sure Sense: Uses deep learning algorithms to detect and prevent zero-day threats in real-time.
- Comprehensive Device Management: Allows IT administrators to watch and manage security policies across the entire fleet.
Do You Have an Action Plan?
No matter the size of your business, panic and confusion are the last things you should experience during a cyberattack. Don’t wait until it’s too late, failing to suitably react to security threats can result in significant downtime and costs.
Create a proactive, reactive, and ongoing action plan to effectively mitigate cybersecurity risks. At Blackbird IT, we are experts with years of experience in creating tailored action plans that suit your business's unique needs. We believe in practical cybersecurity solutions that empower your business without disrupting productivity.
Partner with us to create your action plan to:
- Prevent further spread of the attack.
- Ensure eradication of the threat.
- Facilitate recovery of affected systems and data.
- Establish communication protocols with relevant stakeholders, including IT teams, security professionals, legal counsel, and executive leadership.
Is Your Security Culture Strong?
The key to effective cybersecurity is ensuring your employees are well-trained, in sync, and consistently exercising security practices. One mistake from an improperly trained employee can compromise an entire security system. In fact, more than 80% of all data loss is caused by human error, whether it's sending confidential information to the wrong people or handling it in an insecure way.
To strengthen your security culture, we recommend:
- Conducting regular staff training to educate employees is essential. Things like about what information is confidential and the potential problems that can arise if this kind of information gets out. A strong cyber culture comes from proactive leadership.
- Protect using strong passwords. Time out old passwords, require frequent changes, and consider using a password manager to keep passwords secure and easy to manage.
- Automate updates to ensure your software is always up to date.
- Implement URL filtering to limit access to unproductive or risky sites.
- Endorse Multi-factor Authentication for all staff to add an extra layer of security to your systems.
Are You Actively Managing Your Firewall?
While some solutions may promise to work seamlessly in the background, the reality is that all cybersecurity systems require human intervention. Firewalls, for instance, can be breached or dismantled by cybercriminals, causing patches and updates to address new threats.
Your business's safety hinges on actively administering, watching, and supporting your firewall infrastructure.
At Blackbird IT, we understand the critical importance of this task. Whether you delegate these responsibilities to your team or partner with us, we ensure:
- Regular review and update of security policies.
- Monitoring and tracking of authorised users.
- Keeping track of upcoming software updates and confirming update schedules.
Are you Regularly Assessing Risk?
We all know risk to any business or organisation can have catastrophic consequences, yet proactive measures to prevent it often are misplaced. A straightforward way to ensure your business remains proactive and stays ahead in the evolving cyber landscape is by conducting a cyber assessment – a quick and easy task to conduct.
These assessments play a role in identifying new and emerging vulnerabilities, threats, and areas requiring improvement, offering a foundational evaluation of your environment.
Cybersecurity assessments can also:
- Educate your employees on current threats and best practices.
- Strengthen the trust that management and stakeholders have in you.
- Help you be productive by staying on top of new and emerging vulnerabilities.
- Assist in your internal compliance policies.
Beyond cyber assessments, Risk Assessments offer a full scope of work to address gaps found in line with the Essential Eight Maturity Model, developed by The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). These prioritised mitigation strategies are crucial for organisation's aiming to safeguard themselves against diverse cyber threats, especially those handling significant compliance and customer data.
Are You an Easy Target?
Get a full look into how secure your business is and find ways you can make your business more difficult to target with Blackbird IT’s Free Cybersecurity Assessment.
Your proactive approach could make all the difference.
Contact us to schedule your Free Cybersecurity Assessment.
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