As an executive for your company, you want to do anything and everything possible to keep your business and your employees safe. Vigilance about online safety leads to higher team morale and ensures your company remains productive and positive in today’s market. A cyber-attack can completely derail your company from its goals. Especially with , there are essential steps you should take to keep everyone protected.
At Integris, our focus is to help people like you ensure that their business stays safe in today’s digital age. That’s why we’ve provided a checklist dedicated to cybersecurity for executives in the blog below. Follow these requirements for cybersecurity, and you and your business will have the tools to remain safe and productive.
Review Your Company’s Cybersecurity Policies
The first step to ensure your business is safe is making sure your company follows best practices for cybersecurity. This first step works whether you’re just starting to plan your business’s cybersecurity policy, or you already had one in place. For instance, do you and your employees share sensitive data via email without password protection? Do you have two-factor authentication on all your devices? Do you have strong passwords set up to access your information? Depending on the answers to these questions, your company may or may not be following the top requirements for cybersecurity.
Please look at all your company’s processes and ensure they are up to date. If you aren’t 100% certain about what is safe and what isn’t safe in today’s digital world, hiring a managed cybersecurity service to assist you is the best path forward. Integris’ IT consulting empowers people through technology by proactively protecting companies and their data.
Train Your Entire Team on Requirements for Cybersecurity
For your entire company to be as safe as possible, your team needs to be trained in cybersecurity. They need to understand and spot the signs when someone is phishing for information. They also need to know the best practices outlined in your company’s cybersecurity policies.
If one employee doesn’t follow these rules, your entire company could be at risk. Provide the resources and time needed for your whole team to be trained in the top requirements for cybersecurity. There are many options that help keep everyone up to code, such as a dedicated training session through your IT services provider, or an online resource, like LinkedIn Training.
Implement 2FA Passwords
2FA passwords, also known as passwords, are essential to keep your company and technology safe. They provide an extra layer of security against hackers who might try to steal your company’s information. Even if they successfully hack your password, they must then go through another step to get into your accounts.
2FA passwords require another device to sign in, even if the person signing in knows the password. Therefore, if someone hacks into your account, you’ll get a ping on a secondary platform, such as your phone or email. If someone unauthorized tries to sign in, you’ll be able to stop them in their tracks. It’s super simple to set these up, so make sure you do it for every password possible.
Keep Technology Up to Date
Our computers and software get updated for a reason: to improve the security of the systems. Usually, an update happens in the first place because something insecure was found and fixed. That means if you have an older system, a hacker can easily abuse those known failures. Ensure all your employees remember to regularly update their computers and virus protection programs. Doing so safeguards your business and your employees’ information from hackers.
Use Secure Networks, Especially for Remote Employees
After the pandemic, many employees and companies switched to remote or hybrid work models. While it can be a great move for the productivity of the company and the well-being of the employees, it can be less secure that way. But there’s an easy fix: ensure your employees always connect to a secure corporate network, especially from home. Suppose your employee connects to a public network. In that case, they are at severe risk of being hacked or losing your company’s private information.
Back-Up and Throw Away Data Securely
Backing up and throwing away data is a thing that constantly happens in modern companies. Sometimes an employee gets a new computer but requires access to the information on their old computer. Or a laptop breaks entirely, and the data on it needs to be wiped. Both of those processes need to be done responsibly. Data should be backed up onto an encrypted drive by IT professionals only. Hard drives should be destroyed and unreadable before throwing them away.
Do you have steps in place if an employee has a computer stolen, so the thief can’t get ahold of sensitive information? By ensuring your data is secure, whether you’re backing it up or throwing it away, worst-case scenarios like this aren’t as detrimental.
Just in Case of Worst-Case Scenarios, Have a Cyber Incident Response Plan
Following this cybersecurity for executives checklist means your chances of an online attack have seriously diminished. But that risk is never totally gone, especially in today’s constantly evolving digital world. That’s why it’s vital to develop a cyber incident response plan for worst-case scenarios. This plan will lay out the following next steps for your company:
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- How to get back control of your data.
- How to work together to recover any assets lost.
- How to prevent this from happening again.
Have a Professional Team to Back You Up
Our number one tip for all executives and companies is to hire a provider to assist you with all of the above steps in this cybersecurity for executives guide. They will always know the best practices and latest insights when it comes to requirements for cybersecurity, and they’ll be the most informed on how to keep you and your company safe. That way, you have peace of mind knowing your digital assets are taken care of by professionals.
Integris is Ready to Serve You and Your Company
Integris is an IT managed service provider that puts your people first. We believe that integrity is one of the most important traits a company can have. That’s why we’ve provided the above cybersecurity for executives checklist. It’s our hope that our work helps to keep everyone and their companies safer.
We work with our clients to ensure their businesses stay protected. If you want to ensure that your company and your employees are safe from cybersecurity threats, we’d love to work with you. Contact our managed IT support team today to get started.
