It can be said that all types of companies are now prone to fall victim to cybercrimes. There are many supporting reports showing that cyber-attacks are affecting government organizations and big corporate, but all types of firms like educational institutions, healthcare facilities, banks, law firms, and even nonprofits are being targeted by the threat actors. Along with external intruders, there are insider threats and ransomware, etc., as other possible dangers for organizations to be prepared for.
In slight of these possibilities, the smart business Plan are now investing their money as well as efforts into establishing better cybersecurity and measures to eliminate the risks and security loopholes in their existing systems. They want to keep the sensitive data safer, and there are many important measures to adopt for the same. So, the key question every data administrator has in mind is how to protect the data among these increasing threats?
Best practice checklist for IT security for 2021
1. Adopt biometric security
Biometrics-based security applications can ensure quick authentications, safer access, proper management, and also close employee monitoring for insider threats. You can easily verify user identities with biometric security by providing access to valuable assets with restrictions. There are many methodologies used for biometric security now, such as fingerprint scanners, voice recognition, face recognition, iris recognition, behavioral biometry, palm biometrics, gait analysis, etc. These can be the perfect options for identifying whether the users as genuine as well as possess the privileges to access the data.
Many organizations are now using biometrics as the major data security practice, which is proved to be more secure than passwords and SMS-based authentication. Biometric is now one of the essential aspects of the multi-factor authentication approach. Authentication is not only used for biometrics, but the security admins also benefit from various other biometry tools which enable them to detect any compromise in account privileges as well as access in real-time. The modern approach of behavioral biometrics can analyze the ways through which users interact with the systems and machines. If any abnormal behavior is identified, the tool can automatically send warnings to the security officers so that they can immediately respond to situations. It is also important to consider a secured DBMS for ensuring optimum security, which the RemoteDBA.com experts can administer.
Employee monitoring best practices
Here are some best practices in behavioral biometrics put forth by the UEBA (user and entity behavior analytics) model.
- Keystroke dynamics – This approach considers the typing speed of the users and the tendency to make mistakes in certain combinations to derive the user behavior.
- Mouse dynamics – Each one ten to use the mouse differently, so the time between the clicks, movements speed, and the cursor movement style, etc., can be tracked.
- Eye movement – The user eye and gaze tracking can be done using video recordings or other devices to detect and store some unique patterns.
The biometric authentication market is expected to hit about $41.8 billion by the year 2023. So, you should keep an eye on biometric security and identify the best choice for your specific use case.
2. Should have a hierarchy-based cybersecurity policy
It is considered that a written policy of cybersecurity is essential for any organization. A written policy can always serve as a formal guide to all the cybersecurity measures in the company. A proper policy derived based on your company’s unique security needs will allow the security administrator as well as the internal users to be on the same page in terms of security best practices to follow. It will also act as a guideline to enforce the security rules for data protection. However, each department in an organization may have a unique workflow that can be disrupted easily by unwanted cybersecurity measures and methods that are not applicable to them. So, policy-making has to be done by considering the needs and restrictions of each department.
While making a centralized policy for security administration will also benefit the whole company by covering different processes in various departments. In some cases, as we discussed above, a common policy may restrict many departments. So instead f of having a common policy, you can come up with subsidiary policies for each department under the central policy. You can get many standardized templates for cyber security policies for organizations of different types. You can find an example at the Illinois State Government website, which offers some good cybersecurity policy templates for you to start with. You should also build an insider threat program to monitor, detect, and prevent any scope of insider attacks.
3. Adopt a risk-based approach
Not just regulatory compliance can protect your data. You need to know that each industry has specific risks, so it is essential to focus on compliance with all the industrial standards alongside covering all specific risks related to that industry. Focusing on industry-specific compliance and meeting the standard regulations is not enough to protect the data. You should pay close attention to the risks the company faces and how it affects the bottom line.
You can use risk assessment as the best tool for this. Let us evaluate some important things to check for risk assessment.
- Always try to use the valuable assets, the current status of cybersecurity in your organization, and methods to manage the cyber security strategies.
- A thorough risk assessment will let you avoid many unpleasant things such as fines or failure to comply with government regulations.
- It will also help avoid remediation costs for potential data leaks or penalties for breaches.
Wrapping things up
Through the audit, you can identify the weakest points in cybersecurity and make necessary adjustments. You should also keep a close eye on the hacking techniques by using best practices frameworks and databases. A risk analysis will help you to prioritize the security measures and ensure that your strategy serves the corporate bottom line in the best possible way.