Raising Cybersecurity Awareness with the European Cyber Security Month — Cyver

The European Cyber Security Month is an annual, EU sponsored event where companies across the EU take time to raise awareness for cybersecurity. This year, Cyver is participating, with a special discount for our followers, plus a few quick tips you can incorporate into your security policy right now.

The ECSM is the European version of an international cyber security month, asking businesses to check policies, reevaluate strategies, and patch vulnerabilities. This European Cyber Security Month 2020, Cyver is here to help you evaluate, improve, and patch your security so your organization stays safe online.

How Safe is Your Business?

Cybersecurity awareness is about understanding risks. For most organizations, that means conducting a risk assessment, using regular pentesting to evaluate the security of online assets, and using a security policy to control employee behavior and risks. Risks naturally vary considerably depending on your industry, business profile, income, and security measures. You need an assessment to understand which factors are important for you and which are not. You need pentesting to understand which areas of your business are vulnerable to human hackers.

43% of cyberattacks target small businesses

60% of small businesses experience breaches

60% of breaches result in 8+ hours of downtime

Cyberattacks cost $5.2 trillion a year on a global scale. For the average business, a cyberattack costs anywhere from a few thousand to several hundred thousand depending on size, industry, and type of breach. Averaged out, that works out to $200,000 per business breach.

Tips for European Cyber Security Month

You don’t need a month dedicated to cyber security to take time to review security policies, but hopefully, this reminder helps. There are plenty of ways you can ensure your ongoing cybersecurity this month and this year.

Use Password and Access Management

Did you know that Cisco links 81% of breaches to compromised credentials? User access management and password management become more important, especially as more workers are moving to remote positions with Covid19. Implementing access management can range from simple password managers to complex access matrixes with VPN and multi-authentication for remote access. Good access management should

Educate Employees

Nearly every cybersecurity study agrees that employees are your biggest risk. One study by Kaspersky showed that 52% of businesses with security protocols in place already recognize that employees are their biggest cybersecurity risk. Ensuring employees understand risks, how to mitigate them, and basic security policy is critical to maintaining security. This might include delivering password management, anti-phishing training, or creating and maintaining policies around empty-tray, password-locking devices, and securing BYOD. This year, the European Cyber Security Month is focusing on two main themes, digital skills and cyber scams, as part of #thinkb4uclick.

Maintain a Security Policy

Your cybersecurity policy should include basic security protocols like:

• Running firewalls and antimalware tools on all devices
• Automatically installing updates and patches across all devices (printers, point of sale, workstations, servers, etc.)
• Automated scanners checking for common vulnerabilities
• Back up and secure copies of important information on a separate network
• Securing End-point devices like printers and WIFI routers
• Maintaining secure policies and management on third-party software and tools
• Regularly audit security policies to ensure they are relevant, up to date, and being used
• Integrate security into development and release cycles with regular pentesting to ensure each new release is secure

Cybersecurity is an ongoing need. Your teams should always have security in mind. Building a culture of security takes time, but it starts with integrating tools to make processes easier and faster. Routing work through VPN, implementing password management tools, and integrating multi-factor authentication can go a long way towards improving security in any organization.

You also want that to extend to other types of security. That’s why Cyver delivers pentest reports through our cloud dashboard, with findings as tickets. We communicate with devs during pentests, so they always have the information to fix vulnerabilities. And, we always offer complimentary retesting to ensure the vulnerability is gone.

Originally published at https://www.Cyver.io on October 1, 2020.