Businesses of all sizes, whether in the financial, transportation, retail, communications, entertainment, healthcare, or energy sectors, are impacted by cybersecurity. Cyberthreats are commonplace. Cyberattacks have increased in frequency and maliciousness, including ransomware, phishing, and distributed denial of service attacks against networks. Growing cyberthreats to business operations, reputation, and intellectual property theft can impact a company's viability in addition to its stock price.
Although some may find it challenging, the increasingly complex cyber threat scenario enabled by AI automation of attacks, deep fakes, and polymorphic malware, has made it even more necessary to implement cyber hygiene. Fortunately, a company's security posture can be greatly strengthened by simply doing the bare minimum of steps. To lower your risk of becoming a hacker, everyone should take into account the following cyber hygiene guidelines:
A Short Checklist of 10 Items for Cyber Hygiene
1) Make sure your company has a risk management plan that examines particular requirements and vulnerabilities and facilitates efficient incident response. The strategy ought to cover the ramifications of new technologies like artificial intelligence and their potential use in cyber protection.
2) Following release dates, patch and upgrade your operating system, networks, and devices right away. Do this on a regular basis.
3) Make sure your passwords are strong and not easy to guess
4) Include multifactor authentication with biometric levels.
5) Consider using strong encryption on sensitive data, preferably quantum-resistant
6) Use Identity Access Management and a Zero Trust approach by knowing what people and devices are in the networks and what user privileges they may have.
7) Employees should be taught how to use social media appropriately and to be alert to spear-phishing attempts. Increase the difficulty of social engineering by anyone attempting to get your info. Employees may find that gamification and repeated training assist them in changing their behavior.
8) The most popular assault for breaches and exploitations is still phishing. Regularly back up your sensitive data and think about keeping a copy on a machine that isn't on the network.
9) Steer clear of public networks, and if you must, use a VPN.
10) For small and medium-sized businesses without in-house knowledge, a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) or Managed Service Provider (MSP) can assess, suggest, and safeguard your cyber assets.
The Importance of Having a Cyber-Preparedness Plan
It is not just cyber hygiene that is important but also having a substantive strategy to stay secure and be resilient.
Cybersecurity fundamentally requires a risk management approach. It calls for alertness and includes training staff, discovering gaps, mitigating vulnerabilities, reducing risks, The guiding principles of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework—Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover—should also be familiar to every employee, and especially those who are a part of the C-Suite.
Technologies, procedures, and policies are all components of cybersecurity. Although each organization has its own culture, mission, and skills, management (including board members) and staff are responsible for monitoring those aspects of cybersecurity. This is especially important now that machine learning tools and generative artificial intelligence are both growing in use and sophistication by both attackers and defenders.
Effective communication is the foundation of cybersecurity. Executive management, the CTO, the CIO, and the CISO must coordinate their objectives, work together, and evaluate their information security programs, controls, and network safety on a regular basis. Through the exchange of threat intelligence and innovative security advances, communication facilitates preparedness. It is also crucial that all employees, particularly the board, receive security awareness training.
Effective cybersecurity calls for expertise. A corporate board should ideally consist of both external and internal subject matter expertise. Executive management can always benefit from outside specialists' opinions and suggestions. It keeps one from becoming complacent. Legal compliance, cybersecurity technology solutions and services, training, liability insurance, governance, and policy should all be included in areas of special expertise.
Understand the new cyber ecosystem. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G, Cloud/Edge computing, and soon-to-be quantum computing are impacting the landscape. I recently wrote a book called that helps serve as a roadmap for understanding and leveraging the next wave of tech advancements. Amazon.com: Inside Cyber: How AI, 5G, IoT, and Quantum Computing Will Transform Privacy and Our Security: https://search.app/tjsdrjgEw8xCeBCR6
About the author:
Chuck Brooks currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in the Cyber Risk Management Program, where he teaches graduate courses on risk management, homeland security, and cybersecurity. He also has his own consulting firm, Brooks Consulting International.
Chuck has received numerous global accolades for his work and promotion of cybersecurity. Recently, he was named the top cybersecurity expert to follow on social media, and also as one of the top cybersecurity leaders. He has also been named "Cybersecurity Person of the Year" by Cyber Express, Cybersecurity Marketer of the Year, and a "Top 5 Tech Person to Follow" by LinkedIn”. Chuck has 123,000 followers on his profile on LinkedIn. He has keynoted dozens of global conferences and written over 350 articles relating to technologies and cybersecurity. He has authored a book, “Inside Cyber” that is now available on Amazon. Amazon.com: Inside Cyber: How AI, 5G, IoT, and Quantum Computing Will Transform Privacy and Our Security: 9781394254941: Brooks, Chuck: Books
In his career, Chuck has received presidential appointments for executive service by two U.S. presidents and served as the first Director of Legislative Affairs at the DHS Science & Technology Directorate. He served a decade on the Hill for the late Senator Arlen Specter on Capitol Hill on tech and security issues. Chuck has also served in executive roles for companies such as General Dynamics, Rapiscan, and Xerox.
Chuck has an MA from the University of Chicago, a BA from DePauw University, and a certificate in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law.
- By Chuck Brooks (President, Brooks Consulting International)
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