Cybersecurity Strategies to Make IT Networks More Resilient to Cyberattacks

The increasing use of advanced technologies and the internet have created an attack surface for malicious attackers. With these progressions, businesses' IT systems are now more vulnerable which has led them to leverage innovative cybersecurity strategies that can thwart and make their networks more resilient to cyberattacks. Cybercriminals can use a variety of attacks against individuals or businesses like accessing, changing or deleting sensitive data; extracting payment; interfering with business processes and more.

These kinds of attacks present an evolving danger to organizations, employees and consumers, and can cost them reputation, finances and personal lives to some extent. So, in order to protect IT networks from cyberattacks, it is significant to be aware of the various aspects of cybersecurity.

Recently, the European Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA has published procurement guidelines for cybersecurity in hospitals. While the practices are aimed at securing healthcare services from cyberattacks, most of them can also be applied across diverse areas of IT networks.

The ENISA's cybersecurity practices are – Involve the IT department in procurement; Vulnerability management; Develop a policy for hardware and software updates; Secure wireless communication; Establish testing policies; Establish Business Continuity plans; Consider interoperability issues; Allow auditing and logging; and Use encryption.

Furthermore, here are some cybersecurity strategies providing more protection to IT services and making them more buoyant to cyberattacks.

Keeping All Devices Up to Date

Dodging the threats of cyberattacks, businesses always need to update their devices to ensure operating systems and web browsers are secured. They also must install firmware updates on hardware such as printers and scanners, to protect themselves against the latest threats. Undeniably, not keeping IT networks up to date can become one of the greatest linkages to cybercriminals who are always in search of breaches. So, staying on top of these necessary updates is vital to enhance network security, as well as maintaining compliance with the various legal protocol.

Involving the IT Department in Procurement

Involving the IT department in the very first stage which ensures that the new employees are aware of the cybersecurity protocol. By doing so, the cybersecurity risks associated with a new procurement are assessed, and specific cybersecurity requirements for the new procurement can be defined.

Training Employees in Cybersecurity

In a business environment, new employees need to be made aware of any corporate security policies as part of their induction process. Companies should also provide training to existing staff to keep them up to speed on cybersecurity issues. In a Verizon's 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, 73 percent of attacks were committed by outsiders in the 53,000 real-word cyber breaches investigated. However, the report also revealed that a quarter of data breaches were enacted by insiders, either maliciously or simply by human error.

Establishing a Virtual Private Network

In today's digital age where employees use their smartphones or laptops regularly to access their work server from anywhere, establishing a virtual private network (VPN) can be constructive in making a network much more secure. VPNs can provide safety to computer data when employees are online by creating a safe and encrypted connection over a less secure network, such as the internet or public Wi-Fi that most employees use to access their computers or smartphones. VPNs can also be leveraged to see websites and use services that are constrained in certain regions.