These days, cybersecurity is no longer something to be considered but rather a necessity. In 2021, close to 850 thousand cybercrime complaints in the US alone were estimated to cause losses worth almost 7 billion dollars.
What’s worse, the number of incidents is constantly on the rise and, in 2025, is predicted to generate costs of over 10 trillion US dollars worldwide.
As the cost of a data breach often reaches millions of dollars, this issue is especially worrying to smaller businesses.
Whether they offer eCommerce services or focus on having Australian credit scores explained, most small companies don’t have the huge budgetary safety nets typical for international megacorporations.
Such companies need to prioritize designing and implementing their own cybersecurity strategies to minimize future damage. To make it easier, below you’ll find a few key components that a good enterprise cybersecurity strategy should have.
Proper Workforce Training
No matter how good your cybersecurity strategies are, they’re much less effective if your staff doesn’t understand cybersecurity fundamentals. Your employees and management team should educate themselves on the matter and treat it seriously.
Focus on Improving Passwords
According to research conducted in 2021, almost a third of users experienced security breaches because they continued to use weak passwords.
Make sure that your employees put some effort into coming up with strong passwords that include a combination of letters, numbers, and characters.
They should be hard to guess and resilient to brute force, but at the same time memorable enough so that your staff is able to log in.
For example, a password containing your name and date of birth, such as “paulallen1962,” is insufficient.
It’s better to avoid using personal information and modify an automatically generated suggested password to fit your needs. Also, remember to tell your employees to use separate passwords for every account or device they use professionally and to change these passwords regularly.
Watch Out For Unauthorized Software
Unverified programs might look innocent enough. Perhaps one of your employees found and decided to use a new podcast app on their office computer, or maybe they installed a copy of their favorite game.
No matter what sort of software it is, make sure that your staff checks if the program came from a reliable and verified source before installing anything on their work-related devices.
The reason is many unauthorized programs contain malicious elements such as spyware or ransomware. Some might even install a backdoor into the office equipment, giving cybercriminals easy access to all of your data.
Be on the Lookout for Suspicious Emails
On average, in 2022, employees send and receive over 120 job-related emails a day. With such a high number of messages, it’s perfectly natural that some of your staff don’t pay attention to what they click on. Unfortunately, emails are one of the most often used methods of infecting business devices with dangerous malware.
Because of that, make sure that your workforce knows how to recognize a suspicious email. Some of the yellow flags they should watch out for are atypical characters or spellings and the strangely formulated content of the email.
Employees should determine the file types of any attachments and run them through antivirus software before opening them. Although these tips are not foolproof, they should help your workers significantly reduce the risks of catching an unwanted bug.
Risk Assessment
The adage that knowledge is power may be old but is still very relevant in cybersecurity matters. Before you start designing your enterprise cybersecurity strategies, you need to identify areas that might be more susceptible to attacks.
Update Software, Back-Up And Prioritize Vulnerabilities
Your business might be operating on outdated software and is more susceptible to cyber threats. In this case, one of your cybersecurity strategies would be to switch to a modern, up-to-date alternative.
Similarly, it may turn out that your company doesn’t back up its vital data and, therefore, might lose everything in the event of a data breach.
Furthermore, try to categorize your vulnerabilities based on their impact on your operations. To illustrate the point, for an eCommerce business, the safe operation of an online store is a more immediate priority than that of a promotional blog.
Cyberspace Monitoring
Another vital component of a successful enterprise cybersecurity strategy is proper monitoring. You need to be aware of what’s happening in your networks to detect any harmful activities. The quicker you get to know about suspicious actions, the easier it will be for you to deal with them.
For example, once you know there’s unauthorized access to one of your office devices or programs, you can immediately restrict access to them. It is even possible to backtrack the leak to the cybercriminal involved in many cases.
Monitoring your networks 24/7 a week is almost impossible if you’re a small business. Although there are tools that make it easier, the best course of action is to hire an external company that’ll focus on detecting and informing you of any threats. This may be an additional expense, but in the end, it’s still more cost-effective than losing a fortune to cyberattacks.
Recovery Plan
Ultimately, no cybersecurity countermeasure is completely impregnable. It might turn out that cybercriminals somehow manage to bypass or break through all of your safety measures and steal what they want.
If that happens, it’s best if your enterprise cybersecurity strategy includes a response plan that can be immediately implemented.
It should have a clear structure and be easy to follow. For example, if the stolen data includes customer information, you should immediately notify law enforcement to help protect client identities and other vital elements.
Before you notify shareholders and your customers, it might be best to work out the extent of the damage and have workable solutions to present to these two groups. This way, it might be easier to calm both of them.
Afterward, you should start working on implementing your new security measures to decrease the chances of such an incident repeating.
Conclusion
Now that you understand the key components of an enterprise cybersecurity strategy improving your cybersecurity effort should be much easier. Assess potential risk areas, keep your networks monitored, and ensure that your employees understand cybersecurity matters.
What’s more, have a plan ready in case a cyberthreat still manages to break through and cause damage. Hopefully, after putting these components into practice, your business will be much safer. Good luck!