Cyberattacks against government targets and business infrastructure garnered major headlines last year. From ransomware and spyware to zero-days and phishing, the number of targets and capabilities of bad actors continues to grow. Any actions taking place online deserve our highest consideration for protection and defense. Cyber attacks cannot only cripple key infrastructure and business functions, but they can also damage an organization’s reputation.
If you haven’t yet looked into risk management policies and procedures to prevent or mitigate cyber threats, now is the time to prioritize a sound cyber strategy.
Here are four best practices to consider:
- Maintain an offline, encrypted backup of data and test the backups.
- Train employees to avoid cyber phishing and other common IT attacks.
- Conduct regular scans to detect and address vulnerabilities to minimize the attack surface.
- Continuously update patches on software and operating systems.
Cyber attacks constitute a significant liability to businesses regardless of industry, size or location. Therefore, several organizations have taken the opportunity to provide education and highlight available resources, such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which recently launched stopransomware.gov. The website contains information to help organizations better understand the threat of ransomware and what steps to take should a cyber attack occur.
While the Biden Administration released a statement on the importance of businesses having a cybersecurity strategy and outlined best practices in their FACT SHEET: Act Now to Protect Against Potential Cyber Attacks. This sheet includes steps the public and private sectors can take to protect themselves.
To help businesses stay on-top of this important issue and ever-changing landscape, the Salt Lake Chamber is hosting a series of webinars on cybersecurity in the coming weeks focused on the evolving cyber threat landscape, zero trust authority, cryptocurrency and more.
Utah has a thriving economy, but we cannot take this success for granted; we must continue to promote and defend our business resilience. We hope you will do your part to make our state cyber secure!
