Imagine locking your brick and mortar store’s front door, setting the alarm and putting your cash in a heavy steel safe every night. Leaving inventory out on the sidewalk, unguarded, isn’t something you’d do. But every day, thousands of companies leave their digital doors wide open.
Data is today’s currency, as valuable as physical cash or inventory. All businesses, from the global giants to the local coffee shop, rely on computers, the internet and digital data to function. That’s where cyber security kicks in. But what does that look like in practice? How do companies really use this day-to-day?
Data Security
All businesses have lots of sensitive information. This can include customer credit card numbers, employee social security numbers, bank details and proprietary business secrets (such as a unique software code). Cyber security builds a digital vault around this data for the businesses. They do this through three main methods.
Encryption
This is a way of scrambling data so that it is written in a secret code. The code can only be read with a special digital key. If a hacker intercepts an encrypted email or steals an encrypted file, all he sees is a mess of random characters.
Access Controls
Not every file should be accessible by every employee. Cyber security tools enable companies to restrict access so that a marketing assistant can’t inadvertently open the accounting department’s financial spreadsheets.
Secure Backups
Picture an office where all the paperwork is destroyed by a fire. In the digital world companies have secure, cloud-based backups. If their core systems break down or are hacked, they just hit “restore” and get back to work.
Network Security
A business’s network is like an office block. People are walking in and out all the time, emails are coming in, employees are surfing the web, customers are visiting the website.
Businesses use firewalls to keep the bad guys out and the good guys in. Imagine a firewall as a strict security guard at the gate to your digital world. It examines all data attempting to enter or leave the company’s network and stops anything that looks suspicious.
Companies use Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and firewalls. They act like digital security cameras and motion detectors. They’re watching the network for odd activity, such as an employee account suddenly trying to download millions of files at 3 a.m. and calling it out before it can do any damage.
Training The Human Element
You can have the best cyber security software in the world, but one click can negate it all. Hackers know that the easiest way into a company is via its employees. This is often done through a technique called phishing, where fake emails are sent that appear to be from a trusted source, like a bank or the CEO of a company, in order to deceive the receiver into revealing their passwords. The staff of the business is trained in using programs of cyber security. This includes:
- Training employees to spot red flags (e.g. wrong email addresses or hurried requests for money).
- Conducting simulated phishing tests to see who bites. Target retraining.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA). This is when you log-in with a password but also have to type in a code sent to your phone. Even if a hacker steals an employee’s password, MFA halts them in their tracks.
Securing Remote Work
Gone are the days when everyone sat down at a desktop computer inside a secure company building. Employees are working from home, coffee shops and airports on laptops, tablets and smartphones.
And if an employee accesses public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop, anyone else on that Wi-Fi can get to their data. Businesses use Virtual Private Networks ( VPNs ) to solve this. A VPN creates a private, encrypted “tunnel” through the public internet, meaning data travelling from the employee’s laptop back to the company office is completely hidden from prying eyes.
Business Continuity
A cyberattack on a business starts the clock ticking. Every minute the system is down is a minute the business is losing money and hurting its reputation. If an online store goes down for a day, it could mean thousands of dollars in lost sales.
In businesses, cyber security is used not just to prevent attacks but to prepare for them. They create Incident Response Plans, a step by step playbook that tells you exactly what to do if a breach occurs. Who shuts down the servers? Who calls for the legal team? How do we notify the customer? By following these steps, businesses can recover in hours instead of weeks.
Trust Is the Highest Currency
When a customer gives a business their credit card or personal details, it’s an act of trust. A massive data breach can destroy that trust overnight and drive customers straight into the arms of competitors.
