2022 is the year for you and your company to be cyber secure. To make that happen, a lot of work must be done behind the scenes to ensure everyone on your team is following cybersecurity best practices. To help you and your company get to the best, most secure place possible when it comes to online protection, we’ve put together this Cybersecurity Best Practices Guide for 2022. Here are our top ten steps you and your company should take this year.
Cybersecurity Best Practices Guide
- Get Expert Insights
- Update Weak Points in Your Cybersecurity Plan
- Train Employees for Up-to-Date Best Practices
- Update All Software
- Backup All Data Safely
- Review and Cleanup Users
- Strengthen All Passwords
- Turn on 2FA Passwords
- Ensure You’re Using Only Secure Networks
- Keep Everyone Educated
1. Get Expert Insights
Our number one step in our cybersecurity best practices guide is to involve a cybersecurity company to assist you and your team. An IT solutions company like Integris has experts and solutions entirely dedicated and focused on one mission: ensuring your company and employees remain safe in 2022 from all cyber threats. Outsourcing IT support for businesses alleviates your workload while still strengthening your cybersecurity and staying safe in an ever-evolving digital world.
2. Update Weak Points in Your Cybersecurity Plan
As our businesses constantly adapt to new technology and new cybersecurity threats, your previous cybersecurity plans may not be as helpful as they once were. Take a close look at your cybersecurity plan and ensure that any updates that should be made get applied.
It can be challenging to keep up with all these changes. That’s precisely why we recommend working with an IT Services company when developing your cybersecurity plan. At Integris, our expert team will look at your plan, identify any areas that need improvement, and help you implement those changes— so you can take on 2022 stronger and more secure.
3. Train Employees on Up-to-Date Best Practices
Do you feel confident your employees could identify a phishing email? With every passing day, they get trickier and trickier. Have you trained new hires to ensure they’re keeping your company and data safe? If not, now is the time to do it. Everyone benefits from a cybersecurity refresher, especially as things evolve and update in our digital forward society.
It’s a fantastic idea to have another training session with all your employees to show some of the most recent reported phishing and cyber-attacks, so they know what to look out for in 2022. The start of every new year is a great time to ensure they’re following the cybersecurity plan you laid out for your company.
4. Update All Software
We’ve mentioned on previous blogs how important it is to keep all your software up to date. Technology companies are often rolling out new updates to patch known vulnerabilities that hackers have taken advantage of before. So when you update your software, you ensure that those particular cybersecurity threats don’t impact you and your company. If you’re unsure of the status of your team’s software, now is the time to schedule a company-wide update, and repeat regularly throughout the year.
5. Backup All Data Safely
If you haven’t backed up your data in a long time, this is your sign to do it. Ensure that all the data you use is accessible somewhere else if your software crashes or your information gets hacked. Remember to do it safely as well. Protect information via passwords or encrypted hard drives.
6. Review and Cleanup Users
With every year that passes with your company, employee changes are bound to happen. Whether you lose employees or hire new ones, it’s always a great idea to check every year what accounts have access to the online programs that use you daily. Clean up any old users that should no longer have access, such as shutting down their email so no one can hack it when it’s not being monitored.
7. Strengthen All Passwords
Every year, you should update and change your passwords to something more secure. Taking the time to ensure that all passwords follow cybersecurity best practices keeps your data and company safe and secure. Plus, changing your passwords frequently lessens your chances of being hacked. Make sure to make every password unique, difficult to guess, and kept in a safe and secure location that limited people have access to.
8. Turn on 2FA Passwords
Not only should you use 2022 as the time to strengthen any passwords you have, but you should also set up 2FAs for all your online accounts. 2FA is two-factor authentication. You may be familiar with how this process works. Many online companies such as Gmail require all online accounts to set up 2FA passwords, which is a great business practice.
Essentially what happens with 2FAs is that if you sign in onto a new device or from a new location, you have to confirm that it’s you via responding to a text message or email ping. If it’s not you signing in, you’ll get that ping and stop the hacker in their tracks. That’s why it’s a super strong cybersecurity best practice to follow. Plus, it’s straightforward to set up.
9. Ensure You’re Using Only Secure Networks
2022 is the perfect time to make sure you and all employees working for your company are connected only to secure networks. This is especially important if several of your team members are working remotely on their systems. Remote and hybrid offices may be at higher risk of being hacked and losing personal data for your company if employees aren’t connected to secure networks. Remind them not to use public Wi-FI and onsider purchasing a VPN for your company to use to keep everyone protected.
10. Keep Everyone Educated
As mentioned above, cybersecurity is constantly evolving. New threats surface every day. One of the best things you can do for yourself and your company is to educate yourself on all cybersecurity news. Sign up for monthly classes. Keep an eye on cybersecurity headlines. Work with your professional IT systems company to ensure you’re doing everything you can to stay up-to-date and safe.
Ready to Roll Out 2022 Feeling Safe and Secure?
We hope that this cybersecurity best practices guide is helpful for you and your company. If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of improving your cybersecurity, Integris is here to help. We work with companies and team members to keep everything updated and safe when it comes to cybersecurity best practices.
Implement Cybersecurity Best Practices Today
Ready to get started with a cybersecurity consultation? Speak with one of our team members to begin building your cybersecurity strategy and make 2022 your most secure yet. Contact us today to get started with managed IT support for businesses.
