Why Does Your Business Need Network Security Monitoring?

Network Monitoring – Why Do You Need It?

Ensuring a solid cybersecurity knowledge base and plan for your business and your employees is essential for avoiding cyber attacks that could have enormous costs to your organization's resources. Monitoring your organization's network security is critical and if you don't even know where to start on your path to securing your business, read on:

1. Cover the basics

First, you need to recognize why cybersecurity is essential to your organization. Doing your research or employing the help of an IT services company, develop a list of different types of cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. Next, describe the types of information that must be protected due to federal cyber and privacy law requirements and the consequences of not adequately protecting such data. Finally, describe the best practices you can use to reduce cybersecurity risks for your business. 

2. Cyber hygiene 

Given everyday cyber threats, it's essential to identify potential hazards to your organization's cyber and physical security associated with common, everyday devices. It's critical to ensure your business follows specific protocols when sending sensitive information by email, storing it on a shared server, or maintaining physical copies. Ideally, you would set up training that would enable your employees to learn about situational awareness and best practices to keep their information secure outside the office. They would also learn about the internet of things (IoT). They would be able to identify how using standard; everyday devices can pose cybersecurity risks to themselves and their employer.

3. Avoid common traps and react efficiently

To keep your business safe, you and your employees would be able to identify potential phishing attempts. As a manager, you may need to explain why phishing threatens you and your organization, why links and attachments can be dangerous, and describe the different ways you could be targeted. Keeping your business safe is dependent on you and your employees recognizing common indicators of a phishing attack received by email, texts, and social media and then being able to describe common signs that you have been infected by ransomware. If your business has suffered a cyber-attack, reporting it promptly may make a big difference when it comes to the extent of the impact.

4. Invest in intelligent technology, platforms, and services

Hackers, malware, and other cyber threats make outdated technology easier to target. Ensuring desktops and mobile devices have updated their software is the first step in ensuring you avoid unwanted attacks. You may also want to use analytics tools to assess your vulnerability to attacks and invest in automation software (e.g., SolarWinds Security Event Manager, Bitdefender, and Malwarebytes) that helps you catch data breaches automatically to avoid human error. AI and machine learning are another technology that could help you automatically secure your systems and, if you have been attacked, aid you in getting your hardware and software back on track.

Forbes recently noted that AI and machine learning are already allowing tech devices to "self-heal” and self-secure themselves. Finally, we suggest you reduce the risk of cyber threats by investing in relatively inexpensive solutions, like VPN and data encryption.