Discover the best cybersecurity training tips and solutions your business needs with the Essential Cyber Toolkit by SWK Technologies and Datto. This ebook is designed to help small and mid-sized businesses understand the cyber threats specifically targeting SMBs, and how to protect against them by enforcing security practice at the user level. Through the right combination of education, vigilance, technology and IT support, this Toolkit will help you chart your path to a cybersecure network and business.
Here are the key takeaways this ebook will impart that will help you provide the best cybersecurity training and solutions for your business:
Employees Need Cybersecurity Training to Protect Your Business
Any organization’s employees are the first and last line of defense against persistent hackers and cybercrime. Modern networks are user-driven, near-instant data streams that feature many endpoints to facilitate faster communication between machines. Unfortunately, these nodes can also enable discreet cybercriminals to exploit unsecure login credentials if the right steps are not taken to protect individual users and business data.
There are a variety of cyber threats out there, as well as methods to identify and defend against them. Here are a few of the key factors the Essential Cyber Toolkit will help you understand better:
Hackers Use Social Engineering on Network Users
Social engineering was a facet of crime before the creation of the Internet that was a favorite of con artists, but modern connectivity gives every criminal the chance to pull off their own scheme. The world wide web is an open marketplace of data, including information that could be used to identify and exploit potential victims. Once a hacker has the chance to stalk an employee, they can find ways to leverage their credentials to gain greater access to critical business data or to company funds directly.
Social engineering techniques covered in the Cyber Toolkit:
- Phishing
- Baiting
- Quid Pro Quo
- Pretexting
- Tailgating
Cyber Threats that Can Bring Down Your Business
There are many types of cyber threats as well as methods used to deploy them, though most hackers of various skill levels will stick to the same core categories for easiest returns. Although many diverge on the specific details, there are a few main stages where cybercriminals hit their victims to get what they seek. The most common is infecting a network via user with a malware program, though other techniques also involve using weak remote coding or the user’s login credentials as backdoors.
Cyber threats included in the Essential Cyber Toolkit:
- Spoofing
A phishing email that masquerades the sender as a trusted source to entice the victim to let their guard down. A wide of range of effort has been observed in these types of messages with sophisticated examples appearing virtually indistinguishable from a legitimate branded email. However, even more obvious attempts have proven effective through creating enough urgency to click and optimizing send time for high stress periods.
- Phishing Domains
While most hackers rely on spoofed emails with malware attachments to phish victims, some also lay fake domains as traps for downloading malicious code. These can exist as links in messages as well as online adverts and pop-forms.
- Ransomware
Ransomware has become a king of malware as it represents an efficient method of ensuring a hacker is paid for their efforts and relies on many of the same tricks as other phishing campaigns.
Learn How to Spot the Red Flags
Many might believe they know the red flags of a malicious email, but most are not trained well enough to immediately spot the signs as second nature, especially during periods of duress or laxity. Confirming a cyber threat often requires extra work that the user may not be able – or willing – to complete in that moment, and distractions can divert focus from the hidden danger. Only education – and repetition – can arm your employees with the mindset for sniffing out phishing right away.
A few of the red flags covered in the Cyber Toolkit:
- Email URLs
You may think it is easy to spot a typo in an email address, but hackers have gotten better enough at dressing up their spoofing that the incorrect URL will often be the only mistake. This is a critical red flag that can be easy to overlook due to habit, and cybercriminals know this.
- Redirecting Domains
This requires more effort on the user’s part to confirm, which makes it easy to fall for. Only by carefully hovering your cursor on a clickable link will you be able to identify if the URL is questionable, and many will seem legitimate enough to not ask for confirmation.
- Personal Information Request
There are plenty of instances where users are required to submit personal information for it to become a habit, and this is another behavior hackers will exploit. Anyone whose login can be used to bypass permissions can become a target for this.
Critical Cybersecurity Solutions to Have
While cybersecurity training should be at the forefront of your defense strategy, there are several tools that can help shore up weaknesses and automate background security. The Essential Cyber Toolkit outlines many of the critical solutions even a basic plan should be putting in place and why they are necessary to protecting your business. However, it is important to keep in mind that these tools still require you to practice good cyber hygiene to remain cybersecure all around.
Take a Layered Security Approach
Having multiple layers of security ensures that your cyber defense will not hinge solely on each and every individual user’s cybersecurity practices every waking moment. This approach takes factors like human error and strokes of luck into account to prevent a single mistake or hacker breakthrough from exposing your data completely. Using this method also helps limit potentially vulnerable network endpoints, shrinking your attack surface at least somewhat.
Layered security tools featured in the Cyber Toolkit:
- Antivirus
- Network Firewall
- Patch Management & Regular Updates
- Password Security
Implement and Deploy a Business Continuity Plan
Having a business continuity plan (BCP) in place is vital for your company’s ongoing cybersecurity stance, and the new normal has only reinforced the importance of planning for disruption. The most basic – and critical – requirement of any plan is ensuring the security of data, and the most effective method is a backup. Supplementing this with additional solutions help you transform your BCP into a true BCDR (business continuity and disaster recovery) strategy that helps you prepare for almost any cyber incident.
Business continuity topics covered in the Essential Cyber Toolkit:
- Data Backups
Backing up your data should be one of the top priorities of your cybersecurity planning along with training. In the event that your system goes down or is compromised by an attacker, you must be able to retrieve your business information – especially anything involving your customers’ personal data. This latter point is often an essential industry and state regulatory requirement, and could be well on the way to being a federal obligation.
- Image-based & Cloud
Advances in backup technology have made many options available beyond the traditional tape-based systems that are vulnerable to many of the same dangers that an onsite server would be. These include image- and cloud-based backups that help facilitate near-instant uptime after an incident compromises your data.
Compare Your Efforts Against the Cybersecurity Checklist
The ebook contains a quick checklist of essential items to be incorporated into your cybersecurity planning, including many of the topics previously discussed. This concise but comprehensive list will help you keep track of the many actions your business must follow up on to avoid vulnerabilities slipping past your business continuity planning.
Cyber Toolkit Checklist:
- Risk Assessment
- Training Program
- Network Security
- Software Updates
- Clear Cybersecurity Policy
- Backups
- Recovery Plan
- IT Visibility
- Access Permissions & Controls
Download the ebook below to learn more about which steps your business needs to take to fulfill each point for this cybersecurity checklist.
Download the Essential Cyber Toolkit and Improve Your Security
The new normal and digital transformation have further brought the world into wide-ranging and consistent connectivity between every computing device. Leveraging the lessons from this ebook and support from SWK’s Managed Cloud Services will help empower you to meet the slew of cyber threats that can impact your business at any time.
Download the Essential Cyber Toolkit and learn more about what you need to do to make your business cybersecure.
