Cybersecurity threats have become a daunting reality in this digital age. Individuals and organizations face the constant risk of being targeted by nefarious cyber attackers.
Although navigating this digital minefield can be challenging, with the right knowledge and strategies, you can significantly reduce such risks and build resilience.
After all, understanding emerging threats in cyber security and knowing what to do when a cyber attack happens is crucial to protecting your online accounts and private data, whether you’re an individual or an organization.
Let’s go through some foundational measures to strengthen your cybersecurity, prevent potential attacks, and effectively manage the aftermath, should an incident occur.
How to reduce the risk of cybersecurity attacks
It is possible to reduce the risk of cyber security attacks. It is as simple as installing anti-virus software, for starters.
But this isn’t a comprehensive enough security plan and it is best to put as many measures into place to reduce the risk as much as possible.
– Create backups of your data. The number one tip to help reduce the potential harm any cyber attack can cause, is to back up your data.
If something does happen, you do not want to be at risk of losing all your data. Whether the data you have on your devices is for business or pleasure, you will want to secure it and ensure you never risk losing it due to a one-time cyber attack.
Therefore, be smart and create backups of your data regularly. In the event that something does happen, you will still have all of your data to re-download and use.
– Keep yourself updated on emerging threats. Whether you want to understand cybersecurity for work or personal reasons, it is a good idea to keep yourself updated on the subject.
Keep an eye out on the web for the latest threats and what cybersecurity attacks can do to your devices. Understanding more about cybersecurity will help you spot attacks and act fast for minimal disruption.
– Keep your devices updated. Most newer and widely used internet-connected devices get regular software updates from their manufacturers.
Some of these updates fix potential security issues. Hence, updating your device’s software regularly will ensure the best security measures are in place.
– Use the strongest passwords and MFA. It’s true that hackers use computer programs that can guess hundreds of millions of passwords every minute to launch brute force attacks.
But when you set a complex password with a mix of characters, numbers and upper/lower case letters, it’s more challenging to crack than a simple one.
Apart from setting strong passwords, you should also enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
– Pay close attention to the history and activity of your device. You should be the only one using your personal computer or mobile device.
Hence, if your online history or activity looks suspicious, it could be a sign that your online activity is being monitored and you are at risk of a cybersecurity attack. It’s also possible that someone is watching your offline activities too.
Therefore, it is always a good practice to keep a close eye on your devices for any suspicious activity.
– Install firewalls and anti-virus software. If your devices do not have firewalls or anti-virus software installed, they will be at high risk of attack. We really don’t need to explain why, do we?
– Manage your network access. You and people trusted by you should be the only ones with access to your network. If you allow your network to be public, whereby anyone can use it, you will put your data at risk. Therefore, manage the network access on your device and switch it to private so only trusted users can utilize it.
What to do if you experience a cybersecurity attack
Even if you take all the cybersecurity measures detailed above, you may still fall victim to a cyber attack. If this happens, here is what to do –
1. Do not panic. It is important not to panic if you experience a cybersecurity attack as it will only make things worse. Remain calm and take the next steps outlined below.
2. Identify the type of attack. If you (or your IT person) can identify the type of attack to which you’ve fallen prey, start with that.
Sometimes, attacks are subtle and you can only measure the extent of the damage by thoroughly searching for the breach point.
3. Report the attack. When the attack has happened, it needs to be reported so that the right people can deal with it.
It can be a good idea to notify law enforcement and make them aware of the situation, especially if your business’ data or sensitive personal information has been stolen.
After that, if you’re a business, report the attack to your malware/firewall company to let them know that their software did not prevent the attack. They can assist you in getting your data back and prevent it from happening again in the future.
If it’s your personal data that has been purloined such as the credentials for your online bank account or social media account, then resetting your password and contacting customer care, depending on the data that has been stolen, is best.
4. Repair the damage. Next, you will need to repair the damage. If you have backed up your data, there won’t be much to do other than download the required content once again and reinstall whatever programs need to be reinstalled.
However, if your computer has been hacked and you have lost everything, you will need to ask for expert help to try and get the data back.
If you’re a business and the security issue affected your clients or partners, it would also be a good idea to inform them directly and assure them that the situation is under control, rather than risk them finding out about this from a third party.
