Every organization, regardless of its mission statement or business operating sector, has its own risk profile. Each organization should carry out a series of assessments to implement security measures addressing risks and identifying threats and vulnerability.
Organizations should ensure that all equipment, both hardware and protection software, is updated and install the latest patches. It is also paramount for organizations to reach an agreement for a third party to provide software that covers maintenance and upgrade services.
Proper Authentication
An organization’s information system and data may be protected solely by a password. However, it may be recommended to use a more complex authentication means, having at least two of the following authentications: a password, an instant PIN generating device to verify authenticity, and biometric verifications.
Internal commitment, Responsibility & Access to Information’s
Vulnerabilities to attacks are most often caused by sensitive information or data being breached (even unintended) by an organization’s own staff. To prevent this, every organization needs to educate its employees about cyber risks. Your organization needs to enforce the awareness and commitment of organization employees and support improving and maintaining your company’s information security.
Companies should also ensure access is appropriately restricted and timely terminated for workers who leave the organization, contractors, external auditors, or other third parties that have previously had a link with the company’s information system or network. A large range of controls may address the risk of cyber attacks, from manually reviewing all users who access the network in a period of time to automatically disconnecting or disabling users or accounts that have not connected to the network over a period of time.
Archiving and Data Retention
The simplest way to avoid information security being compromised is to archive or remove all data that is no longer required for daily business activities. Archiving and retention of data should ensure data is kept as long as needed in backup servers and removed from the organization’s network. This is likely to limit the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information and data. Studies have revealed that more than 20% of stolen information was data the victim had no clue was stored on the organization’s network.
The world is facing a huge problem in ensuring proper security measures for information systems, and there is great room for improvement in the fight against cyber attacks. Awareness of cyber crime on an individual and corporate level may be effective when handling the increasing cyber crime in the world. Another challenge facing corporations seeking to reduce their risk of cybersecurity breaches is that every state or region has its own laws and regulations about the invasion of data privacy and theft. This makes it difficult to prosecute perpetrators.
Cybercriminals use the internet as a tool to breach the information system of any organization. Thus, individuals and organizations must take the responsibility to ensure an adequate level of security and assess and develop their security measures to secure their information system and data privacy.
