All businesses have a range of key goals and objectives. These can be over the short, medium, or long term and help to give an organization direction and purpose. They provide layers of business strategy that can help a firm expand and remain competitive in what is becoming an increasingly crowded global marketplace. However, one goal that is vital for all modern businesses is to protect themselves from acts of cybercrime. Every day, thousands of attempted cyberattacks are unleashed online against all forms of business and their effects can be devastating. A successful cyberattack can result in extreme financial consequences as well as a loss of business reputation and brand image, especially if sensitive consumer information is compromised. Put simply, improving IT security should be one of the main defensive strategic objectives of any organization. In this article, some top tips on how this can be achieved will be outlined.
Insist on VPNs when using unsecured Wi-Fi
Since the pandemic, many firms now allow their staff to operate remotely, adopt hybrid models of working, or work from public locations on occasion. It is estimated that by 2025, around 32.6 million Americans will be working remotely for at least some part of their working week. This can be beneficial for both staff and employers, with workers often becoming more productive as they can reduce travel times and fatigue whilst helping firms reduce their carbon footprint. However, in some circumstances, especially when working from public locations, staff will be using unsecured Wi-Fi to access corporate systems online. All staff must have access to a secure virtual private network (VPN) in these circumstances. VPNs allow users to gain a different IP address when on public or unsecured networks, which makes it far harder for hackers to know their location and access their information. This software also encrypts data when it is being sent or received, ensuring that cybercriminals cannot decipher it even if it were to be intercepted.
Manage and secure your cloud
The majority of businesses in all sectors of the industry now rely on cloud-based services to run their IT infrastructures. This is recognized to be a more efficient way of running business systems and can provide efficiency and cost improvements to a firm. As the number of applications and pieces of software stored in the cloud grows, there is a need to secure and manage them effectively. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are needed to allow effective communication to take place between these online digital assets and a robust API dev portal is required to ensure that new APIs and other pieces of code can be deployed into a secure and managed environment. Such dev portals allow the behavior of APIs to be monitored, providing insights into any unusual traffic patterns or access requests that could be malicious. In addition, such portals also allow IT administrators to limit access to key systems, ensuring that only those who need to see key applications and APIs do so. In short, API dev portals can provide an extra layer of security to online IT infrastructures that help to protect these systems from the threats posed by cybercriminals.