If you have read our article about Cyber Insurance, you should be aware of how badly it can affect your business and the costs that could be involved.
While having a cyber insurance policy in place, you should also introduce measures and systems into the workplace to ensure that you are protected from any types of online attacks and that if you become a victim of one of these attacks, that you have back ups of your data and information.
Here are some tips on defending your business against Malware and other online attacks:
1. Perform data backups on a regular schedule depending on the amount of change done to data. These backups could be done either weekly or monthly, which ever ensures that the backup will not be missing much information or be outdated.
2. Have a 3-2-1 backup strategy. Two back up copies should be kept locally on two separate storage devices while one copy of the backup should be kept on a device which is stored off-site or in the cloud.
3. Make sure all computers connected to the network have a installed and running anti-malware software solution. This software should also ALWAYS be kept up to date to ensure full protection.
4. Conduct awareness campaigns to educate your staff regarding malware. For example, staff should not click on links in emails from unknown sources or download any software or documents from unknown or untrusted web sites.
5. Set restrictions on company devices. Your IT guy should always set restrictions on company devices that employees use. These restrictions prevent connections to unknown networks, prevent the employee from being able to download anything from the internet and prevents the employee from changing any security settings which could make the device vulnerable.
There are multiple different online malware threats which could target your data and one can never be 100% protected against these threats because they are constantly evolving and new ones are being created. A few examples of these threats are viruses, worms, phishing attacks, identity theft, web page hacks, denial of service attacks and a relatively new attack which, unsurprisingly, is becoming more and more popular... a Ransomware attack.
Ransomware is software that finds its way onto a business network through the internet. the attack is launched by someone specifically intending harm on the business. This software encrypts all company data which leaves it unusable by the company until they pay the attacker a ransom to decrypt the data for them. The size of the ransom will of course depend on the value of the data that was affected so if you store critical and sensitive data, you better make sure that you have preventative measures in place, up to date backups and most importantly; cyber insurance!
For your own personal insurance broker and help with all of your insurance needs including advice and quotes on cyber insurance polices, contact Kern Insurance Solutions today. Our expert team is always available and ready to help.