Implementation of 4 Beneficial Cybersecurity Practices

Information Security Group’s Checklist: Top 4 Cybersecurity Practices

Here are the top 4 cybersecurity practices that can help in ensuring a safe and secure IT infrastructure of an organization.

A good cybersecurity culture of any organization requires the utmost care and supervision. While security administrators are assigned to manage the entire IT landscape of the organization, they often oversee the secured processes that safeguard the everyday operations of an organization. Above all, the most difficult task to administer is the unpredictable nature of the “end-user”.

It is a universal fact that human beings are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain of an organization. In fact, they hold a high chance of being a significant risk to the security of the organization. According to recent research, it was discovered that 95% of all data breaches occur due to human error. 

Although, this risk of “human error” can be mitigated by helping them in becoming proactive while responding to cyber threats. Security administrators can implement some advanced security practices in their organizations so as to create a resilient and secure cyber environment.

Here are the four best cybersecurity practices that should be performed to secure the Critical Information and IT infrastructure of organizations:

Employee Awareness Training

In order to prevent cyber-attacks, employees must know how these attacks work and what can be done to avoid them. Ideal awareness training should include the near-real look and feel a cyber-attack simulation of the latest attack vectors viz. Phishing, Ransomware, Smishing, Vishing, etc. with instant knowledge sharing to help employees learn about the tactics that are used by cyber attackers in real life and in turn, learn about methods to deal with them. This practice helps employees in becoming cyber aware and turns them into the strongest link in the cybersecurity chain of the organization. Information Security Awareness Officers, CIOs, CISOs, and ISGs of enterprises should consider planning and executing proper cybersecurity awareness training for the employees. 

Setup of Email Authentication Protocol

Advanced email-based attacks can compromise vulnerabilities existing in the email domain of an organization. Setting up an email authentication protocol helps in increasing email deliverability by preventing emails from being spoofed. Also, phishing and other social engineering attacks are often deployed via forged sender information, therefore an email authentication protocol ensures that none of such forged emails are able to surpass. Essentially the desired tool should enable Complete Email Channel Monitoring coupled with Dynamic SPF (Sender Policy Framework), Dynamic DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance), and automatic detection of SPF IP and DNS update. Implementation of a proper email authentication protocol is a  must to help employees in gaining trust in their mailbox. 

Email Authenticity Verification 

Phishing emails can be quite suspicious to recognize as cybercriminals are always one step ahead in tricking users with spoofed email addresses. The purpose of sending these emails is to gain the user’s attention by handing over their personal information. Cybercriminals majorly target employees and use them as bait for their malicious intent.  In order to reduce these phishing practices, it is essential to analyze the email header, scan the email body contents, and scrutinize the URL links and attachments accompanying the emails against fraud. Implementing the right phishing incident response tool in an organization to report suspicious-looking emails instantly is the need of the hour. Once reported, such emails should be deleted from all other inboxes of the employees of the affected organization. 

Regular Brand Monitoring  

For any organization, its BRAND is business and BRAND represents revenue, and BRAND remains the front face that represents it on every platform. Fraudulent practices like phishing of the company’s website or application, often leave a wrong impact on the customers hence leading to poor Brand reputation. That is why it is highly important to make sure that no negative or fraudulent practice is impacting the reputation of the brand in any way. Proactive brand monitoring makes it easier to detect and take down the counterfeiting activities that take place against domains, websites, or mobile applications of the organization. 

Cyber-attacks are becoming more complex day by day. Implementing these above-mentioned cybersecurity practices every year can effectively reduce the risk of cyber threat postures of an organization. Security administrators should introduce these practices to help every individual working in the organization in becoming proactive and have a secure working environment. 

Thanks for sparing valuable time for reading this article. Shall appreciate your qualified views, ideas, and comments in the relevant domain.   

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