4 Tips To Improve Your Business Network Security
Businesses today are trying to secure their network infrastructure against malicious attacks and data breaches by improving their approach to network security. Business network security consists of the strategy, preventative measures, and software that protect network data and infrastructure from destruction, malfunction, unauthorized access, or cyberattacks. Companies incorporate all these security measures to mitigate or prevent network security risks. Business Network Security
However, as the number of network issues increases, having a shoddy business network security could lead to data loss, security breaches, and malicious attacks, which negatively impact a company’s day-to-day operations. For that reason, many businesses work with reliable managed service providers, such as Albuquerque managed IT services, to ensure they have strong network security. With robust business network security, you can protect your business from external threats, such as malware, phishing, and brute force password hacks. It can also help you prevent data breaches caused by internal attacks.
With that in mind, read the tips below to improve your business network security and prevent external and internal security threats.
1. Hire Managed Service Providers
While you may have dedicated in-house IT professionals in your business, it’s an excellent idea to outsource your company’s network management to a managed IT service to help improve your network security. Managed service providers, such as network security consulting firms, provide valuable services relevant to your business IT needs. They offer an around-the-clock network monitoring service that helps identify vulnerabilities and potential risks in your business network infrastructure. Beyond that, they can devise security solutions that align with your business needs and prevent cyberattacks.
Apart from preventing malicious attacks, hiring a reliable managed service provider can also help you avoid issues such as data loss and network crashes. Moreover, with managed service providers at your side, they can give you access to their high-end tools and solutions that help improve your business network security.
2. Educate Your Team Members
Team members are usually the primary targets for cybercriminals trying to penetrate a company’s critical network. Instead of attempting to breach a secure network through external attacks, hackers sometimes find it easier to masquerade themselves as authorized staff of a company and secretly inflict damage to a secure network or system. For that reason, educating your team members on cybersecurity should be your priority. Investing in a proper cybersecurity program for your team can help improve your network security by enabling them to detect potential cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities. With the team members knowledgeable of cybersecurity practices, you’ll reduce the chances of security issues like a data breach.
The good news is that there are free cybersecurity training programs online you can choose from to educate your staff on the basics of cybersecurity. But if you’re looking for advanced courses, you can select a specialized cybersecurity program ideal for your in-house IT team. These advanced programs can help your team understand cybersecurity and provide them with the necessary skills to build your company’s cybersecurity defense.
3. Backup Your Business Data
Today’s businesses can experience data losses due to several causes, such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, human error, and system crashes. Without having data backups in your business, you could lose your data and suffer several consequences from it. Notably, data loss can lead to reputational damage, loss of customer trust, and sales and revenue reduction. You may even face legal consequences due to the laws and regulations that protect the customer’s privacy. But fortunately, with several data backup solutions available today, you can improve your network security by protecting your data from cyberattacks and other unexpected incidents.
For instance, you can back up your data through flexible storage called ‘the cloud’ or cloud backup. It’s a cloud-based service that allows you to back up business data in a remote and easy-to-access server. With a cloud backup being part of your data protection strategy, you can recover and restore your business data instantly whenever you need it via a secure online portal.
4. Upgrade Security Protocols
Cybersecurity protocols protect your network data and infrastructure against malicious attacks. These protocols include establishing firewalls, installing antivirus, using strong passwords, and educating your team members on cybersecurity practices. But besides implementing those preventative measures, you can also improve your business network security by implementing other security measures that put another layer of protection to your business data and infrastructure. Notably, you can implement authentication factors like multi-factor authentication (MFA) to provide another barrier to malicious attacks. With MFA, you don’t need to worry if hackers stole your username and password because it’ll still be difficult for them to access your account.
In addition to MFA, you should consider having a cybersecurity incident response plan to mitigate the detrimental impacts of a security incident by reducing the response time and costs associated with it. Besides that, having an incident response plan also strengthens your overall business network security as it helps identify potential risks and vulnerabilities in your network.
Conclusion
Overall, improving your business network security protects you and your customers from security incidents. In particular, it protects your business from a security breach’s reputational damage and legal consequences. Besides maintaining a positive business reputation, having an improved business network also helps boost customer trust, protect proprietary information, and grow your business. With that in mind, consider using the tips above to improve your business network security.
