Cybersecurity in Tech Company

There’s a good chance you’ve heard of cybersecurity, but you’re not sure what it means and why it is important. If you check any online dictionary, you’ll see it has a fairly simple definition. But the practice itself is quite complex.

Over the years, cybersecurity has become one of the most controversial and concerning topics in the digital world. Cybersecurity IT companies struggle to provide their clients with effective measures to protect them against criminal or unauthorized use of electronic data. However, they don’t always succeed.

Moreover, cybersecurity has been used interchangeably with a handful of other concepts, such as IT security or information security. While these are connected, each refers to a different set of methods and practices designed to protect users’ data and privacy. Here, we’ll explain precisely what cybersecurity means and why you must prioritize it. Let’s begin!

What Is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity refers to all methods, practices, and means that protect users and internet-connected systems including IT infrastructure, databases, hardware, and software from digital threats. Practices of cybersecurity in IT companies play a significant role in shielding businesses against mischievous acts and unauthorized access to datasets.

Crafting a robust cybersecurity plan is not only essential in showcasing a strong security posture to clients, but also helps keep the business operations running in full safety. 

Why Does Cybersecurity Matter for IT?

Just think of all the online activities you perform on a daily basis. Searching for a nice restaurant in the neighborhood, purchasing a product online, making financial transactions, sending important information to a colleague, etc. 

Most of these online activities involve sharing parts of your personal information. That’s the main reason why cybersecurity is so important for every online user. But when it comes to IT, there are many other compelling reasons as well, including:

#1 Rapid Growth of Cyber Crimes

According to a recent survey, approximately 11,000 reported cases of cyber crime occurred from January to July 2022, indicating a 61% increase from 2016. The rapid growth of cyber crimes can be a huge obstacle to safeguarding many business operations as well as individuals’ privacy and data security. 

#2 Unauthorized Access to Data

Cyberattacks can be targeted toward pretty much every digital system and online database. Many cybercriminals target individuals and try to violate their data privacy by accessing their financial information, transaction records, and more. Accessing this information can put brands and individuals in an unfixable situation.

#3 Cybercrimes Cost You a LOT!

In some cases, you might be able to recover your datasets or devices from an attack, but at a great cost. A 2022 survey revealed that cybercrime costs the global economy approximately $445 billion every year, putting many businesses on the brink of bankruptcy. 

Main Cybersecurity Domains 

Devising a fail proof cybersecurity strategy involves addressing various threats and creating different layers of protection to safeguard your online security. Let’s examine some of the main cybersecurity domains to help you get an idea of the complexity of the task at hand:

#1 Critical Infrastructure Security 

Critical infrastructure security refers to protocols and countermeasures designed to protect computer systems, networks, and other assets against serious incidents. The critical infrastructure consists of all the vital systems that keep daily life going, including highways, bridges and tunnels, railways, utilities, and buildings.

#2 Network Security 

Network security consists of the policies, processes, and practices adopted to protect the underlying networking infrastructure from breaches, intrusions, and other threats in both wired and wireless (Wi-Fi) connections.

#3 Application Security 

Application security refers to all the measures and processes applied during software development that extend the software’s life cycle. Application security is one of the essential parts of the design stage and includes various processes of developing, adding, and testing security features within applications to address their security weaknesses.

#4 Cloud Security

Cloud security refers to the technologies, policies, controls, and services that encrypt cloud data in storage, in motion, as well as during processing. Cloud security is one of the most important measures to support clients’ privacy and ensure safe and secure business operations.

#5 Information Security

Information security or InfoSec consists of various data protection measures that protect sensitive information from unauthorized activities, including inspection, modification, recording, and any disruption in order to guarantee the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of your data.

Common and Top Cyber Threats

Here are 5 main types of cyber threats:

• Malware: Malware or malicious software refers to any kind of virus, worm, trojan horse, ransomware, and spyware that provides unauthorized access or cause damage to a computer.
• Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malware that locks down files, data, or systems and threatens to publish the data or permanently block access to it unless a ransom is paid off.
• Phishing: phishing refers to a form of fraud in which an attacker masquerades as a reputable entity or a close personal contact and attempts to acquire sensitive data, such as bank account numbers.
• Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks: DDoS attack is a malicious attempt where attackers make an online service unavailable to users, often by temporarily interrupting a machine or network resource to its intended users
• Advanced persistent threats (APTs): APT is a sophisticated, sustained cyberattack in which attackers use sophisticated hacking techniques to gain unauthorized access to a computer network and remains undetected for an extended period.

Key Cybersecurity Technologies and Best Practices to Protect Your Business

Thus far, we’ve established the importance of cybersecurity for protecting your personal data and business. But the main question remains: how should you prepare to defend against such a wide range of cyber threats? Here are some tried and true strategies that reduce your vulnerability to cyber-attacks and protect your critical information systems:

#1 Invest in Employee Training 

Training your staff to identify red flags as early as possible is one of the best ways to protect your business against cyber attacks. For instance, locked accounts, inaccessible datasets, mismatched sender details, suspicious logins, and significant drops in network performance are all warning signs of a cyberattack.

#2 Use Strong Passwords

Creating strong passwords is essential to prevent unauthorized access to your accounts and information systems. Strong passwords are often long (more than 10 characters) and include letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and symbols. Moreover, passwords shouldn’t include any obvious personal information or common words.

#3 Update Regularly

Regularly updating the software on your computer is one of the easiest ways to protect your systems and clients’ information from cyberattacks. In most cases, cybercriminals hack devices by exploiting known weaknesses in systems or software. Upgrading your systems and software will address these vulnerabilities.

#4 Audit Your Systems 

System audit investigates your entire operation, databases, software, and hardware to review the performance of an operational system and identify and prevent cyber threats and policy mishaps. Moreover, a security audit helps you set specific security standards by conducting penetration testing.

#5 Use Artificial Intelligence

Over the past decade, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tools have been widely used to enhance brands’ cybersecurity. AI has an exceptional ability to identify common patterns, vulnerabilities, threats, and attacks on the network and reduce breach risk by providing real-time monitoring and securing networks and services.

Bottom Line

Here’s a fact: most businesses do not have the necessary tools, expertise, and knowledge to regulate the cybersecurity of their organization. That’s why you should always consider hiring a professional team to help you manage all cybersecurity tasks from updating your operating systems, to securing your website.

As a leading international hardware & software development company, we are dedicated to helping businesses to safeguard their privacy and reputation. Our services range from design and integration of IoT, IIoT, and Embedded systems to web development, mobile app development, and more. 

We have the knowledge and expertise to help you navigate your way in this overwhelmingly dangerous digital world. Contact us today, and we’ll discuss how to begin our journey together!