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Category Archives: Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity, IT Support, Managed IT Services

Keep Your Business Reputation Intact in Wake of a Security Breach

11/01/2023 Marketing Department

Cyber attacks are outright devastating for Australian businesses. Not only causing extreme financial loss but potentially long-lasting reputation damage. With customers’ lack of trust, this could make it incredibly hard for your business to get back on its two feet.

So how do you protect your reputation in wake of a cyber attack?

The key is to be transparent and open to all stakeholders. No longer can businesses hide behind their office doors and customers kept in the dark until the situation blows over. People will ask questions and it’s your responsibility to answer them as truthfully as possible. When a cyber attack strikes you’ll most likely be hit by a barrage of enquiries and addressing the public may be forgotten about. That’s why your business needs to be prepared and plan ahead.

We have created some guidelines that MUST be followed at minimum to prevent this from happening. We will outline what you need to have in place before, during, and after a data breach, to help prevent lasting reputation damage.

Before an Attack: Not IF but WHEN

Before we begin, let’s establish why it’s best to prepare now, and there are two key reasons. Firstly, cyber attacks are so frequent that it’s no longer a matter of “if” it will happen, but “when” it will happen. The second reason is when systems are compromised, people panic, emotions run high, confusion sets in, and mistakes will get made. If the preparation has been done, when disaster strikes it will greatly reduce the chance of mistakes.

One of the first things to do is assemble a team of in-house incident responders and equip them with the necessary tools for the job. Make sure to provide proper training on evidence collection and storage processes. When disaster strikes, they’ll know what to do and will be the ones to ensure all procedures are being followed.

Establish a communication channel that is available around the clock. Focus on informing internal stakeholders in the event of an attack. It’s important to keep communication open to ensure trust and transparency.

Set up a notification process that involves relevant departments, such as marketing and legal. Decide on a plan for informing customers, regulators, and law enforcement. Having this in place prior helps streamline the process of notifying parties immediately.

Consider offering unique services to affected clients. This depends on the nature of your company and the assets at risk. One example is identity protection for customers whose information has leaked. These are a gesture to show your commitment to continuing the customer relationship.

During The Attack: Be Strategic

Keep internal stakeholders updated on developments. As well as the steps your company has taken to ease the situation. Keep phone lines open, although sending email updates has proven to be more efficient. Be sure to create a timeline of events as you go along.

Identify and document the following information and evidence as much as you can. These are needed when the time comes to notify clients and the public about the breach:

Compromised systems, assets, and networks
Patient zero, or how the breach happened

Information in affected machines that has been disclosed, taken, deleted, or corrupted.

If your company has a blog or a page where you can post company news, draft up an account of the events from start to finish. It’s also good to include what you plan to do in the next few weeks following the breach. Be transparent and effective. This is a good opportunity to show clients the company’s initiative to rectify the problem. The Chief Marketing Officer should take the lead on this.

After an Incident: Keep the Momentum

Notify your clients and anyone else that may have been affected by the breach.

Put out company news or blog posts the company has drafted about the cybersecurity incident.
Send emails linking back to the blog and social media.

You must prepare to receive questions from clients and anyone interested in learning more about what happened. Expect to have uncomfortable conversations and receive criticism, some people will always be less understanding than others.

Offer those extra services to clients, which you have already thought out and prepared for in the first phase. Even if they don’t wish to receive the offer, the gesture will show your commitment to amending customer relationships.

Regain stakeholders’ confidence and trust by focusing on breach preparedness & containment strategies. Based on post-incident discussions, implement new processes. This will help prove the company’s commitment to its clients. This can turn the stigma of data breaches on its head.

Audit the information your company collects from customers to see if any is not a necessity to do business. The logic behind this is the less data you keep on customers, the less data at risk. Make sure that all your stakeholders know which information you will not be collecting and storing anymore.

Last, be sure to recognise the hard work of your employees and reward them for it. Yes, they’re your stakeholders and shouldn’t be forgotten. Especially after the event of a cybersecurity incident.

Conclusion

Knowing how to manage your business’s reputation is seen as a competitive advantage. It’s one thing to know how to recover from a cybersecurity incident. It’s another to know how to keep the brand’s image intact despite the negative attention.

Remember that a breach can happen to any company from any industry. How your company acts before, during, and after the incident is what will be remembered. Use that to your advantage.

We hope you’ve been able to take something away from this. With cyberattacks continuing to wreak havoc for Australian businesses, it’s best to be prepared. These key steps are vital to preventing lasting reputation damage at your organisation.

Cybersecurity, Managed IT Services

5 Crucial Cyber Security New Year’s Resolutions For 2023

21/12/2022 Marketing Department

We’ve all had those new year’s resolutions, we start strong for the first couple of weeks. Then quickly reminded by how busy being in business is and our priorities shift. Our good intentions slowly get forgotten about and never picked back up.

If you’re here, it’s because you want to do the most crucial thing you can for your business. Make sure your cyber security is up to snuff.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or want a fresh perspective, we’ve listed key goals you must work towards so that your cyber security resolutions will not die in spirit. Here is everything you need to get the ball rolling with your cyber security today.

Let’s be clear, this might be daunting, but let me remind you this isn’t a solo effort, cyber security is a collaborative process. Work with your IT provider, HR, and the entire team to discuss, brainstorm, and implement these tactics. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your cyber security. Take your time and get each step right from the start.

Here are 5 cyber security resolutions to prepare your business for online threats in 2023.

Perfect Your Password Policy

I get it, passwords, how boring. Listen though, I’m going to tell you something you probably haven’t heard before.

You’ve always been told for staff to change their passwords frequently, let’s scrap that. It’s obvious to both of us that getting staff to constantly change their passwords is nearly impossible, time-consuming, and annoying. Requiring frequent password changes only leads to users making small adjustments to their already simple, previous password, resulting in weaker security.

Users should have strong and unique passwords for each account. To help achieve this, only enforce password changes when there is suspicion that passwords may be compromised. Now, staff can focus on creating a stronger password, knowing it won’t need to be changed anytime soon.

A simple way to implement this? Promote the use of unique passwords by using a password manager, it will do all the hard work for you. They can create and store an unlimited amount of passwords for all staff, it’s a tool that will save your team loads of time.

If you’re a micro business there are lots of free password managers. If you have 10+ staff, you’ll need to pay for a business-based password manager. Our top business password manager recommendations are Keeper, Password Boss and LastPass. At Pronet we use Keeper for ourselves and all clients. Its extensive sweep of security features makes it one of the best options for cyber security.

Top it off with the security measure in our next resolution.

Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Do you know how you get a text asking to enter a 6-digit code after your login details? Yeah, that’s a form of MFA and it’s extremely important now.

So important that enabling MFA reduces the chance of your account being hacked by 99.9%. Hackers will not be able to access your account unless they are physically able to get your MFA-enabled device. Let’s be honest that won’t happen because I don’t think they’re leaving their bedroom anytime soon.

Making sure all your staff and all their accounts are set up with MFA is a MUST this year. It may not be something you can directly implement yourself, so make sure your IT team put it as a top priority. It’s on you to make it happen!

And a little bonus. Some of the current password manager apps allow you to use MFA within them. The same application can be used to enable strong passwords and implement MFA. Talk about cost-effectiveness.

Remove Old Users from Your Systems

One big cybersecurity resolution for the new year is to clean up all those old user accounts.

If your company has active accounts from old employees, it dramatically increases the potential vulnerabilities in your organisation. An attacker only needs to find one set of login details to gain access to your systems.

Let’s not waste any time with this one, start removing unnecessary accounts to reduce the risk of hackers infiltrating your network. That’s not all. If you want to stop this issue from coming back up there’s one more thing to do.

It’s even more important to change your policies to ensure the principle of least privilege is followed. What this means is that users should only have access to the resources they need to do their job. When that access is no longer needed it should be revoked.

This becomes especially important when employees change roles, leave the company, or are terminated. They may attempt to abuse their access and cause harm to your organisation through actions such as stealing or destroying data, planting malware, or other malicious actions.

Let’s get rid of those old accounts and get new policies in place to prevent the issue going forward.

Conduct A Risk Assessment

I do not doubt your business has experienced some kind of change over the year. Whether that means changes to your systems, structural arrangements, technology or more, your business is in a state of flux.

Due to that, a yearly risk assessment is so important. It gives your company a chance to take note of all of these changes and analyse the threats to your security.

Once your organisation has an updated view of the challenges it faces, it can plan successfully for the future. This may include adjusting security plans and policies to stay safe in the coming year.

Without conducting a risk assessment based on all the changes, it could cause you to focus in the completely wrong areas. Not only wasting time and resources but also leaving your business vulnerable in to threats.

Get that new year risk assessment done ASAP.

Quarterly Employee Training

This might seem daunting, but one, it’s the most important, and two, it’s not as hard as it seems.88% of data breaches are caused by employee mistakes. Human error is still the driving force for cyber security issues, you’re asking for problems by ignoring staff training.

When it comes to training staff, there are already so many resources online where the work is practically done for you! Videos, articles, and interactive quizzes are readily available and can be accessed at staff members’ own pace. All you need to do is point them in the right direction.

Be sure to make it relevant. Relate training materials to your staff’s job responsibilities and the types of threats your organisation is most likely to face. Of course, you’ll know exactly what kind of threats your business will face from that risk assessment. This will help ensure that the training sticks and that staff are more likely to use the skills they learn on the job.

Training provides a good opportunity to remind your staff of policies, but they also allow you to update them on the latest threats. Your employees are often the first line of defence in a cyberattack, so don’t underestimate their role when it comes to protecting your company.

Conclusion:

There you have it, our 5 cyber security New Year’s resolutions. 5 things that we believe are a must to implement to have the best chance of being protected this year. With cyber crimes predicted to soar in 2023, you don’t want to take any chances, especially with your business.

Remember what I said initially: cyber security is a collaborative effort. Work with others in your organisation to ensure this gets done, otherwise I can guarantee you will fall short. Tackle one at a time and get them right from the start. Good luck and I wish you a successful year ahead!

Cybersecurity, Managed IT Services

Christmas Crackdown: Why Business Owners Are Tightening the Rules for Online Shopping at Work

16/12/2022 Marketing Department

It’s alarming to know that nearly half of social media users have fallen victim to shopping scams.

It may seem like a good idea to avoid the shops at this time of year. If your employees are doing some last-minute Christmas shopping at work, it’s important to ensure that your business is protected. Online shopping scams are on the rise, especially this time of year. With the damages for business owners being so high, it’s not a risk you want to be taking.

The Dangers of Online Shopping at Work

Unfortunately, new research shows that 47% of people click on dangerous links. They think they’re getting a great deal, but instead, give up financial & personal details to cyber criminals. I know it’s the season of giving, but let’s not get too carried away.

Your employees don’t only risk giving up their personal information, but risk your device and potentially exposing your company’s entire network to criminals.

It’s not just shopping scams employees need to look out for. Phishing scams also manage to trick 36% of people into revealing personal data. Phishing scams are where you get an email that seems to be from someone or somewhere you trust, but it’s not.

Remember that account you never made, emailing and asking you to update your payment details? You probably don’t remember it because good chance you never actually made the account. It’s just a scam.

The same 36% have also fallen for gift card scams. Where criminals gain the trust of victims and try to persuade them to buy gift cards or online vouchers. Not in the Christmas spirit at all.

See, with all the benefits online Christmas shopping can bring, there are a lot of nasties you and your staff need to be aware of. Especially this time of year.

The Damage It Can Bring to Your Company

Let’s talk about what kind of damage you can expect, and it’s not pretty. If employees do happen to click on malicious links or download an infected file, the results for your business can be devastating.

Cyber attacks are now so harmful that the risk goes beyond the loss of data and reputation. Once victim to attack, criminals can force you to cease your business operations altogether. The cost of downtime has proven to be enough to put people out of business for good. An astounding 60% of SMEs that fall victim to cyber attacks go out of business after the first 6 months.

Yeah, not the kind of Christmas present you’d want, so let’s talk about how we can avoid this happening at your company.

How You Can Lower the Risk Today

Here are some ways to help you protect your employees, and more importantly your business this holiday season.

While technical protections such as firewalls, antivirus, and strong password management are important, the focus needs to be on training your team. It should be known that the most effective defence is a team that can recognise a threat when they see one. Investing in your team’s training and education will help them stay vigilant and protect your organisation against potential attacks.

Make sure your staff are aware of the latest scams and know what warning signs to look out for. At a minimum make sure all staff are

Check website links are genuine
Making sure websites are the real deal
Being suspicious of offers that look too good to be true

It is also important to have a plan in place that can be implemented as soon as a security breach is detected. All staff should know how to report incidents immediately and who to notify. The faster your team can respond, the more damage you can prevent and the associated costs that follow. In some cases, it may be possible to stop the breach before it negatively impacts your business altogether. By being prepared and having a clear plan of action, you can minimise the risks and protect your organisation.

If you’re after the quickest way to make sure your team is keeping an eye out for scams, send a quick email reminder. Take the points from this article and forward them to your staff. Even better, forward the entire article! The best thing you can do is make them aware.

There you have it, some easy ways to protect your business from online shopping scams. We hope you’ve been able to take something away or give you something to think about.

Cybersecurity, Managed IT Services

Quick Tips for Employees to be Cyber Safe

26/07/2022 Marketing Department

Among all the components that a business needs to operate successfully, cybersecurity has now become one of those essential components. In the wake of COVID outbreak, businesses have stepped up their digital adoption, and threat actors are ready to grab the moment by going after companies of all sizes and industries. The year 2021 will go down in history as one of the most successful in terms of both security breaches and cyberattacks.

No matter what industry you’re in, attackers have no limits on what they may do. They just care about the data they can get their hands on and the money they can get for it. Even now, the attacks are getting more aggressive and smarter. If you are an employee of the company, then you must understand that you are on the front line of information security. Therefore, it’s important to stay on guard to help assure your company’s data is safe and secure. This article will focus on the best practices that employees should try to follow as human factors remains the primary reason for most of the cyberattacks happening in the world. Silly mistakes can bring devastating results and even complete closure of businesses in many cases. So, it is the duty of the employer and the employee too to be aware of cybersafe practices and follow them to remain safe. Let us start with these quick things:

Never Use the Company Email Outside of Work
For the sake of having all the updates in one single email, it is commonly seen that people use their work email for personal use, like for shopping, dining, etc. While it makes life easier, it’s also one of the riskiest things a person can do. Doing so unintentionally can put a business or corporation at risk. Your email can reveal confidential information about your company, which could cause the business to fail.

For instance, Australia’s one of the big universities, i.e., Deakin University was also a victim of cyberattack recently when an attacker used a staff member’s username and password to access student information via one of Deakin’s third-party providers. So, if you’re going to use your business email for personal purposes, think again about it.

Mind Your Clicks
It is human nature to click on pop-ups, links, and ads if we personally receive them to know what value they offer. And, hackers savagely target this weak point of humans, and just with one click, they get access to your company data in a matter of seconds. These can be delivery emails pretending to be from DHL or Amazon, amazing offers, and so on, all designed to entice the reader to click the link. So, if you ever get an email with a link in it that doesn’t pertain to you, I suggest avoiding forwarding or clicking on it, and only notifying your company’s security staff. This would allow your company to put a halt to the attack and prevent it from spreading further at the time it occurs.

For instance, this is the phishing email we received a few days ago where the hacker portrayed himself as the shipment company DHL, but our employees are well-educated about the cyber safe practices and no one clicked on the link. The catch here was that the email i.d. that was used to send did not belong to the DHL company and all our employees realised the same.

Educate Yourself About Phishing Scams
Phishing scams are the most common scams that result in a security breach. Hackers or phishers lure employees to click on links that ask you to enter personal or company information, and once the information is entered, the whole network of the business is exposed to the hackers. It is very crucial to understand the difference between a genuine link and a corrupted one. If you are unsure of the link or email you have received to fill in the details, I suggest you immediately consult your I.T. department to verify. This will help prevent any cyberattacks.

Use Strong Passwords
So, again, to make our lives easy, we all use the same passwords or common passwords at work and in our personal lives. It simplifies our lives and even the lives of hackers too. Keeping common passwords gives an open invitation for hackers to compromise all the accounts using that password and, through them, give access to your company’s or business data. The last thing anyone would want is to be held responsible for such a devastating setback for a firm. So, just be mindful when creating passwords for the tools and software you use at work.

Never Share Passwords
So, another human trait is to have passwords written somewhere or to share them with someone trustworthy (according to you), which is not at all a good practice. Being humans, you never know when a person’s intention changes and it might be too late before that person misuses the information you have shared. It is a good practice for both personal and professional life not to share passwords with anyone.

Use 2FA While Logging into Devices, Software, etc.
An extremely safe option to use for staying safe in the present unsafe digital environment. You can try using different apps to have the authentication turned on for all of the logins. This will keep everything safe and even alert you instantly when there is an attempt to hack the accounts.

Make Sure all the Updates are Followed
Another thing that most of us ignore is the pop-up messages that come on our screen to update certain software, applications, etc. Usually, we all ignore or delay updating the installed software or applications, and this opens the gate for hackers to compromise the system from your machine, using your identity passwords, and have access to all your company’s sensitive data. If your company sends out instructions for any security updates, it is wise to install them all right away. Cyberthreats often take aim at your data. I am sure no one would want to be the reason for a cyberattack at their workplace, so next time when you see the update message on your screen, take the necessary action immediately.

Talk to Your I.T. Department
It is a good idea to learn more about the best practices to follow to be safe from cyberattacks online without any hesitation. Your I.T. department or I.T. partners will always advise you the best when it comes to cybersecurity. Reaching out to the I.T. department or person to alert them of any possible warnings is also advised to keep away any threats.

Use the Latest & Relevant Technology
Another major thing to keep in mind is to use the latest versions of tools, software, and technology in the workplace. If the licence of the software, applications, etc. you are using has expired or needs an update, do take the necessary action immediately as these outdated versions are most commonly used by hackers to attack. It is usually the duty of the I.T. department or external I.T. partner to suggest the best technology, but the employees should also be aware of putting forward any demand or need they have when it comes to technology they are using.

You Can Avoid a Data Breach

Having the right knowledge about how to identify spoofed content, links, emails, etc. is very crucial for strengthening your company’s defence against cyberattacks. Always remember: one corrupt click by you could let in a hacker and a single delay or failure to fix a flaw in time could become the primary reason for a cyberattack. So, take it as a part of your job to engage in safe online behaviour.

IT should be the backbone of every business and to help businesses leverage the same, Pronet Technology has been offering the best IT solutions along with cybersecurity tailored to your business needs and budget for more than 25 years now.

CALL US today at 03 9069 2188 to get a free consultation for your business IT requirements.

Stay tuned to our blogs to know interesting IT-related tips and facts.

References:

Graham, J. and Carey, A., 2022. Deakin University cyberattack: Hackers get details for 47,000 current and former students. [online] Theage.com.au. Available at: <https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/hackers-get-details-of-47-000-current-former-students-in-deakin-uni-cyberattack-20220713-p5b16v.html?fbclid=IwAR23ya2lPoU0L7_ZxQhFipMEtbQLzlS8hw0sbhU3OuYtiKYriSNnBJps3w4> [Accessed 24 July 2022].

2018. Silver Magic Keyboard. [image] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/silver-magic-keyboard-1109543/> [Accessed 25 July 2022].

Cybint. 2020. 15 Alarming Cyber Security Facts and Stats. [online] Available at: <https://www.cybintsolutions.com/cyber-security-facts-stats/> [Accessed 24 July 2022].

Cybersecurity, Managed IT Services, vulnerability scan

The ACSC’s Essential Eight Maturity Model

23/06/2022 Marketing Department

In today’s complex cyber landscape, businesses face a new set of challenges every day to keep up with the competition. Among all sorts of challenges, the primary and most common ones are the ones that occur online because of business reliability on internet. And, one category of these challenges that is putting businesses on edge is Cyberattacks. As the technology advances, these threats to businesses have also advanced. There is an unwanted and sharp rise in the occurrence of cyber-attacks all across the world. And, in terms of its victims, there is no exclusion; it could be an individual, a start-up, a small business, a government institution, a tech-giant, or literally anyone and everyone on the internet.

It is a choice of the individuals and businesses to maintain cybersecurity posture but looking at the grim consequences of cyberattacks, the Federal government is focussing on building Australia’s defences. And, as a precautionary advisory for its people, it has introduced the Essential Eight Maturity Model to have cybersecurity measures implemented within the organisations. This model consists of strategies that assesses potential risks like loopholes within a business framework and offers preventive measures against them to keep the business operations running smoothly.

What is the ACSC’s Essential Eight?

Essential Eight are the strategies developed and maintained by ACSC to mitigate or prevent cybersecurity incidents within Australia. These strategies can be applied across a broad spectrum of systems, networks and applications. These strategies rank three key areas: prevention, limitation and recovery by analysing their maturity levels.

Here are all the eight mitigation strategies:

Application Control: Running of only approved and trusted applications on the business network to prevent any exposure to the attackers.
Patch Applications: Regularly apply updates to all the installed applications to fix all the known vulnerabilities.
Configure Microsoft Office macro settings: The user’s ability to create macros should be limited as per the requirement.
User application hardening: User apps can be used to execute malicious malware on corporate systems, thus keep them to a minimum.
Restrict administrative privileges: Privileges of access should be restricted, managed, and constantly monitored as the more admins you have, the more will be chances for attackers to access business system through these accounts.
Patch operating systems: Implement the latest security updates to operating systems, servers, and all the devices to fix known vulnerabilities.
Multi-factor authentication: Ensuring two-level security for all the activities involving accessing emails, systems and third-party applications is the one of the best ways to stop unauthorised access to the business sensitive data.
Regular backups: Performing daily backups of important data, software and settings for at least a couple of months is important for business to continue to operate in the event of a security incident.

These are the eight strategies that are measured according to the below-mentioned maturity levels of a business:

Maturity Level 0: This maturity level signifies that there are weaknesses in an organisation’s overall cyber security posture.

Maturity Level 1: The focus of this maturity level is all the cyber attackers who are looking to simply leverage commodity tradecraft that is widely available in order to gain access to, and likely control of, systems of a business.

Maturity Level 2: The focus of this maturity level is attackers operating with a modest step-up in capability from the previous maturity level. These attackers are willing to invest more time in targeting a business and, perhaps more importantly, in the effectiveness of their tools.

Maturity Level 3: The focus of this maturity level is attackers who are more adaptive and much less reliant on public tools and techniques. These attackers are able to exploit the opportunities provided by weaknesses in their target’s cyber security posture, such as the existence of older software or inadequate logging and monitoring.

You can have a detailed look at the Essential Eight here: https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/publications/essential-eight-maturity-model

Although, these are some really helpful risk mitigation strategies that should be implemented, but still they are not sufficient to completely keep a business protected from cyberattacks. It needs continuous and consistent efforts to be protected from any kind of cyber threats. Businesses need to regularly identify the exposed areas that can be attacked by hackers, potential vulnerabilities and much more to stay ahead of the attackers.

Stay tuned to our Blogs to know more about how you can make the best of technology for your business.

Cybersecurity, vulnerability scan

Vulnerability Scanning: Getting the Fundamentals Right!

15/06/2022 Marketing Department

Businesses that comprehend the relationship between the dynamic and unique nature of the internet and the global threat scenario are the ones leading the path to win. Internet has become integral to almost all businesses. It has transformed dynamically over the years and has interconnected the world beautifully. It has entwined organisations, industries, people (good & bad) and everyone online in-between, including those who wish to cause harm to the organisations.

We have observed that the consequences of cyberattacks are becoming more severe and, in some cases, devastating, causing big institutions and organisations to completely shut down permanently. According to the report published by The Ponemon Institute on behalf of IBM, it takes businesses on an average 197 days to acknowledge a compromise made and 69 days to contain it (Institute, 2018).

To mitigate the end damage, there are many precautions that are put in place by the organisations, like data backup, data encryption, cybersecurity insurance, vulnerability and penetration testing, etc. All these practices have their own benefits and are best-fit according to the organisation’s demands. But, among all these factors, the first step that we can take towards cybersecurity is to identify the possible exposed areas within the business operations that can be exploited by adversaries. And, to analyse these potential areas of risk, vulnerability scans are conducted regularly.

Vulnerability Scanning

A vulnerability Scan can be defined as an automated process of identifying security vulnerabilities within an organisation across systems, software, and network infrastructure. Or, it can be defined as a scanning activity involving the identification of vulnerabilities of the hosts, operating systems, services, and applications by author Douglas Landoll in his book (Landoll, 2016). It is one of the fundamental parts of a cybersecurity risk assessment plan that can be conducted either in-house using some tools or with the help of a trusted IT partner.

Now, we can say that a vulnerability scan is the preliminary scan that assesses the IT network of an organisation and generates a report on the weaknesses, misconfigurations, and other flaws within the systems running in an organisation that need to be fixed. Now, the question is how will this scan and report assist me in achieving cybersecurity?

Benefits of Vulnerability Scanning

As discussed earlier, vulnerability scanning gives insights into the areas that are susceptible to cyberattacks. But, its advantages just do not end here. Here’s the list of benefits a business can experience by conducting regular vulnerability scans:

Acknowledge the risk level within the company’s IT infrastructure
A vulnerability scan generates a report of vulnerable areas that must be patched to prevent a cyberattack. The report outlines the risk level of the company by identifying the effectiveness of their cybersecurity measures, if any.

Proactive approach to acknowledge and close security gaps before they are exploited by cybercriminals
With almost all the vulnerabilities and flaws outlined in the report, these automated scans help discover the weaknesses that have the potential to be discovered by the hackers. As hackers also use automated tools the majority of the time, conducting these scans regularly is useful for identifying the potential exposed areas and taking restorative actions before cybercriminals can exploit them.

Improve the cybersecurity measures within the organisation
Upon identifying the potential risk areas, these scans bring out the urgency of improving the cybersecurity measures already followed within the organisation.

Enhances credibility with your partners, stakeholders, and clients
Keeping the crucial data and information secured from any kind of external threat will make all your current partners and client’s value and trust you more. Having a comprehensive security plan implemented and followed within the organisation increases its credibility and long-term relationship with the clients.

Now, that we know the first step towards being cybersecure is conducting vulnerability scans and knowing the potential areas of exploitation, should you be stopping just here?

What preventive measures or plans do you have in place to address these identified vulnerabilities?

Vulnerability scans are just the preliminary scans to identify the problems; they do not give us solution to mitigate the risk. To mitigate the risks involved, there are several ways that an organisation can follow that we will share in the next article.

Stay Tuned to our blogs to find out the preventive measures against cybersecurity.

References

Landoll, D. (2016). The Security Risk Assessment Handbook: A Complete Guide for Performing Security Risk Assessments, Second Edition. United States: CRC Press.

Ponemon Institute (2018). Cybersecurity Report.

Cybersecurity, Managed IT Services, vulnerability scan

Are You Aware of These 5 Reasons to Conduct Vulnerability Scan of Your Business Today?

18/05/2022 Marketing Department

Are You Aware of These 5 Reasons to Conduct Vulnerability Scan of Your Business Today?

Do you remember the last day when you didn’t hear about a cyberattack on a company? No, right? Cyberattacks have become really common these days, making cybersecurity an everyday hassle for businesses to focus upon. The shifting of more and more businesses to the cloud has resulted in a rise in data breaches. Hackers are going after companies of all sizes and, in some cases, even individuals. They are getting better at using technology and are motivated by their own self-interest. The rise in Cyberattacks have increased drastically within Australia as mentioned in the Annual Cyber Threat Report by ACSC

But, do you know how hackers attack a network of computers (s)?

The quickest way for hackers to get into a system is to look for vulnerabilities that they can exploit. By vulnerabilities, we mean any weakness within the IT infrastructure that a hacker can potentially detect and exploit. Therefore, for businesses storing data on their organisation’s network, it becomes crucial for businesses to have a set of cybersecurity measures in place to avoid cyberattacks.

The most important thing that businesses can do to prevent cyberattacks is to monitor their IT infrastructure for vulnerabilities. Running Vulnerability Scans identifies the same for businesses, motivating them to take urgent action. A Vulnerability Scan can be defined as a scan that identifies, analyses, and reports the security loopholes and potential areas of exploitation that can be targeted by hackers. These scans are conducted either by the internal IT team or are outsourced to Managed Service Security Providers.

Does your business need to conduct a Vulnerability Scan and, if so, how frequently?

The next thing to determine is whether or not your company actually requires this scan. The answer to it is “Yes.” Every business these days is using technology in one way or the other. Even if you are a small or family-owned business that only uses one or two computers, we suggest that every business that uses computers to store their data should conduct a Vulnerability Scan because hackers can exploit network weaknesses and destroy or misuse the stored data and information.

The main thing to understand is the number of times you should run vulnerability scans for the size of your business. We would suggest that, at the very least, it should be done once a quarter if not monthly or as soon as you’ve made a significant infrastructural or other IT architecture change.

Reasons to Conduct Vulnerability Scan Today

To Risk Profile your business for any vulnerabilities
Nowadays, no business can function without the internet. Every single time a computer uses the Internet, there is a high potential for a hacker to take advantage of some new vulnerability out there. If the system is not cybersecure, hackers can worm their way into a network and steal proprietary information and other data critical to a business. By running a vulnerability scan to identify the points of weakness in your systems, you can reduce the attack surface that criminals might exploit. In the last couple of years, cyberattacks broke into 62% of Australian SMBs. This shows how important it is for companies to have security measures in place.

To not fall victim to cyberattack occurring every 39 seconds
Research has shown that businesses are unknowingly vulnerable for 470 days before a cyber-attack. And, attackers have an average of 176 days to steal sensitive data and information before a vulnerability is discovered. Vulnerability scans help businesses detect potential vulnerabilities and minimise false positives to prevent future data breaches and remediate vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them.

To double-check the efficiency of cybersecurity measures in place
It is a common misconception among businesses that their MSP or IT support provider, who is in charge of their IT infrastructure, is also responsible for protecting them from cyberattacks; however, this is not always the case. They do not offer cybersecurity unless they are a MSSP (Managed Services Security Provider) or a specialist in cybersecurity. So, to ensure a secure environment to work in and the security measures in place, running a vulnerability scan is a good idea to start with.

To Avoid the Business Setback for an Average of 205 Days after a Cyberattack
According to the reports, the average time to fix critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities is 205 days. This means no work for almost 7 months, bringing a huge loss to the business and, in many cases, an unfortunate shut down too. Interestingly, there is 1 cybercrime report every 10 minutes & 144 approx. cybercrime reports every day by small and medium businesses, making it more crucial than ever before to deploy cybersecurity measures within all businesses.

To Avoid Paying Huge Ransom for Data Recovery Following a Cyberattack
The average total cost of a cyber data breach in Australia last year was $3.35 million per breach. That’s $163 per lost or stolen record, according to IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report. That’s due to each breach taking 296 days to identify and contain. To avoid shelling out your hard-earned money, the only way is to have a cybersecurity posture maintained within your business. You can start by running a vulnerability scan of your business to identify the potential areas of exploitation and the new vulnerabilities emerging every day.

If implemented correctly and ran on regular basis, vulnerability scans can prove to be instrumental in identifying and assessing modern security risk, highlighting the insights for urgent action(s) by the businesses for maintaining a strong cybersecurity across all the areas.

Take Your First Step Towards Cybersecurity With Us Today!

If you want to protect your business from cyberattacks
OR
to get help in determining what is the best solution for your business,

Call us today at 03 9069 2188 for a free consultation.

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Reasons to Conduct Vulnerability Scan Today

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