What steps can a business take to protect itself from cyber-attacks?

The issues affecting businesses are similar around the world. The key issues and points of vulnerability are around human engagement – most of it innocently – such as bringing an infected personal mobile device into the corporate network, or clicking on a social media link that looks harmless but hides a Trojan or Worm that will secretly steal data and money and, potentially, remain undetected with severe impact on security of the infected device.   

The major cyber-security challenges to businesses through 2013 will come from

  • Increase in Exploit Kits
  • Increase in mobile device cyber-security threats
  • Increase in sophistication of threats

So what steps can businesses take to protect itself from cyber-attacks?

The most important steps for a business of any size to protect itself from cyber-attacks is to be aware of the most obvious and dangerous variants. Secondly, it is key to educate employees how to recognise and avoid accidentally bringing a virus/malware/trojan into the corporate network. A recent survey by Dell SonicWALL customers shows that 68 percent of all businesses reported that employees cannot identify fraudulent attacks on the corporate network.

If an organisation does business anywhere on the Internet, it is likely not a question if, but when it will be targeted by cyber criminals. While no protection is ever perfect, there is much that business can do to minimize and deflect the impact of these potential threats. Especially, the IT organisation should closely collaborate with the company leadership to identify vulnerabilities lie, prepare with appropriate countermeasures including advanced high performance, high redundancy network security components and educate employees for the best possible defense and protection of business assets.

Recorded just last month, this webinar from Alex Dubrovsky, Director of Software Engineering & Threat Research, Dell SonicWALL, discusses the latest cyber security threat research and how it could affect your business. http://bit.ly/YdBBa7

(If you're not already registered with BrightTALK you'll be guided through a quick and easy registration process.)

About the Author: Madeleine Hudson