Discover the top ten cybersecurity questions every small and medium business should ask in 2022. Isecurdata can help your business to achieve its cybersecurity objectives in 2022.
NIST revealed that “cybercriminals now view small businesses as a soft target because they don’t have the resources to invest in information security the way larger businesses can”. Hence, major cyber-attacks are now been directed at small businesses.
Furthermore, the new year may come with new tactics and techniques from cybercriminals that may catch many businesses unaware and unprepared. This is why proactiveness is one of the keys to cyber resilience.
As the year 2022 unfolds, businesses should be concerned about their cybersecurity posture and how to stay ahead of cyber threats in the new year. There are salient questions that should be asked which requires sincere answers.
These questions will help to assess the current cybersecurity posture of your business and help you to adjust where necessary. Also, the questions will help you carry out a business analysis that will reveal areas of the business that needs urgent attention from a cybersecurity perspective.
10 Cybersecurity Questions SMBs Should Ask in 2022
1. Does your business have a policy that enforces password best practices?
Weak passwords have over time contributed to many successful cyberattacks directed at organisations and often time, this is due to a lack of password policy implementation and poor password practices among employees. This new year, implement a password policy that covers several password best practices such as frequent change of password, strong password etc.
2. Is your business complying with regulations and standards?
Compliance with regulatory requirements will save a lot of cyberattack consequences because most of these requirements will help your business to scale its cybersecurity posture to meet industry standards thereby reducing cyber risk.
3. Do you have firewalls implemented on your business network?
Firewalls are software or hardware security appliances that monitors and filters the inflow and outflow of network traffic on your system or computer network to allow or disallow legitimate or malicious network traffic respectively. Implementing firewalls will help you block unusual or malicious traffics from your organisation’s network.
4. Is all your company’s system patched including hardware and software?
Most of the successful cyber-attacks in 2021 leveraged unpatched systems. Ensure you always patch all systems including hardware, firmware and software to apply the latest updates to not fall prey to hackers.
5. Are all your company’s devices protected with antimalware and antivirus?
There are known viruses that some antiviruses are capable of detecting based on their signatures and heuristics. Updating your antimalware and antivirus software regularly is a cybersecurity best practice that will keep the health of your hosts in check from a virus perspective. Protect all your company’s devices with cutting edge antivirus and antimalware.
6. Do you use two-factor authentication?
2FA will add another layer of data security to your Information System. It will help to identify and validate legitimate users interfacing with your system, network or data.
7. Are you practising the principle of least privilege?
Do not give an employee access that surpasses their level of privilege. The access given to individual employees should be based on their roles and duties. This will help you secure your business data from data leakage.
8. Do you back up all your data and files?
Always have a backup plan in place. Implement a 3-2-1 backup strategy where you have three copies of your data, that is, your production data and two backup copies on two different media e.g., disk and tape with one copy off-site for disaster recovery.
9. Are your employees trained to recognize phishing emails?
Cybint revealed that 95% of cybersecurity data breaches are caused by human error. Train your employees on phishing intelligence and how to recognize social engineering tactics and techniques. This will help you to build human firewalls around your business.
10. Are your websites properly protected?
Keep your website platform and software up-to-date. Ensure that your content management system, plugins, apps and any scripts installed are updated. Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to monitor and filter traffics to your website. If your website is unsecured, it can be highly susceptible to various cyberattacks.
When you answer these questions, you can begin to implement the various cybersecurity strategies that will help you stay ahead of cybercriminals and start the new year with a cybersecurity housewarming.
Isecurdata with over thirty years of IT Security experience and standardized Cybersecurity Specialists can help your business with optimal cybersecurity solutions and ongoing support to ensure that your business maintains cyber resilience.
Secure your business in 2022 – book a consultation call with one of our IT specialists today.