CYBERATTACKS ON YOUR COMPANY, WHAT CAN YOU DO TO AVOID THEM?

The online presence of companies is already an unquestionable need in all sectors. In the same way that the Internet presence of companies has grown, so has the threat of suffering a cyberattack. To be protected, it is essential to know the risks and adopt at least a series of basic measures. Here we tell you the most important.

The presence of companies from all sectors in the network continues to grow. Today, practically any product or service can be sold or promoted online, and companies are increasingly aware of the dissemination capacity it can offer them and in fact, in 2015 75% of Spanish companies already had a page own website.

Selling online through ecommerce, having a corporate website where to show the main lines of action of a company or having a constant presence on social networks to communicate with their clients are some of the different incursions into the network that most of Business projects.

Risks Related To Cyber Attacks and IT Systems

The network is already an important part of the commercial and marketing strategy of large and small companies, which manage to increase their visibility or their turnover thanks to a communication channel that just a decade ago was almost unthinkable.

However, the online presence of companies, in addition to opportunities, entails new risks, such as exposing themselves to the possibility of suffering a cyber-attack.

Calibrating the Risks of Suffering a Cyber Attack

At the same time that we define an online marketing or sales strategy, companies with an online presence must also know the risks to which they are exposed by hosting their website on a server, storing their data in the cloud or carrying out economic transactions of the company telematically, among other examples.

The growth of the network as a sales, management or dissemination channel for companies has also coincided with an increase in illegal practices such as cyber-attacks or cyberattacks to undermine the image of a company or steal user data and passwords or confidential information. But do companies have sufficient prevention mechanisms and systems to protect themselves from network threats?

The truth is that, while a company defines its strategy on the Internet, it must also include the cyber risks it faces and implement measures to protect itself from any cyberattack that, in fact, could represent a significant loss to the online strategy or the image of the company and even, in very extreme cases, to its own existence.

The starting point for any company should be the measurement of the cyber risk to which it is exposed. We are not referring only to the most well-known attacks, in search of data, keys or files, but there are many other risks that can affect the organization's own technical infrastructure.

Companies probably focus their main attention on cyber risks that come from outside the company like those indicated above.

However, in addition to calibrating all possible external attacks on computer systems and company information on the network, it is also important to know what internal actions can expose the organization to the risk of possible attacks.

We refer, for example, to the error of an employee who leaves a system unavailable, or who converts encrypted or secure information into vulnerable information that is more exposed to external attacks.

We can also consider as internal actions those carried out by companies subcontracted by our organization to manage computer systems, servers, email accounts or information in the cloud, for example. It is important to know all the processes they carry out to minimize any outside risk as much as possible.

Recommendations To Avoid Computer Attacks

To reduce any internal or external threat that directly influences the optimal functioning of the company, there are some essential recommendations that, as we mentioned, every company should also incorporate into its strategy or usual actions:

Establish an inventory of each and every one of the existing cyber risks: What information should the company protect that could be the cause of a crisis in the event of seeing the light?

What data should be protected with a higher level of security so that it never leaks out to the competition or the general public?

What vulnerabilities in the company's IT security could incur fines, legal costs, reduced revenue or sales?

Establish mechanisms that keep each element of the company that is in the network safe: Based on the risks and the level of incidence that they would have in the company, we can define these mechanisms much better, but some basic ones that can be mentioned:

Keep both hardware and software updated

Have a distributed backup system

Hire high availability services

Training and continuous education in safety of all personnel

Mark a periodicity for the antivirus software security processes: a periodic review and update is also essential so that the risk remains at the lowest possible level over time.

Finally, it should be noted that the company must assess, depending on the risk and its resources, what security measures it can resolve internally, through its own means and personnel, and what measures it will be preferable to hire through external companies that offer effective solutions on cybersecurity.