Improve your Organisation’s Cybersecurity

In the current climate, it is becoming increasingly more important to improve your organisation’s cybersecurity. The years of the Covid-19 pandemic witnessed a rise in the volume and sophistication of cyberattacks which show no signs of abating, adding complexity to an already challenging course to navigate. Organisations of all sizes need to examine their current cybersecurity strategies to ensure that they aid in proactively preventing incidents from occurring, while supporting their action plans to aid in recovery efforts should the need arise.

Endpoint Protection

A lasting legacy of the pandemic is the new way in which organisations continue to operate, namely the adoption of remote and hybrid working structures. Many recognise the benefits of these new models of working and have plans to continue with them. From a cybersecurity perspective, a consequence is the increased shift of workloads and data transference to endpoint locations. Failure to protect an organisation’s endpoints is analogous to a failure to protect the network altogether. Endpoint protection solutions must facilitate real-time threat logging and monitoring with centralised controls to avoid security events occurring on endpoints going unnoticed without remediation. The best endpoint protection solutions will not only facilitate machine-accelerated active threat hunting to detect potential known and unknown threats, but will also integrate robust protection and threat neutralisation capabilities to stop the incident in its tracks, drastically improving your organisation’s cybersecurity position. Endpoint protection needs to go beyond defending just traditional work devices such as desktop PCs and laptops. Protection must be extended to mobile equipment, including smartphones and tablets.

Backup and Business Continuity

Even with other cybersecurity protocols in place, the value of a robust backup and business continuity system cannot be overstated. In the event of network infection, the strongest recourse is having the capacity to quickly restore the network from the most recent uncompromised backup. Businesses should ensure that at least one backup copy is stored in a secure off-site location. With the trending growth of ransomware attacks it is essential to choose a backup solution with integrated ransomware detection capabilities. Wherever data resides, be it on-premises or in the cloud, it needs to be backed up by a third-party solution. Datapac works with Datto as a platinum-level partner to provide full backup and business continuity to organisations, no matter where their data lives. Important factors to consider when selecting a backup solution include the speed at which data can be recovered, the data backup frequency facilitated, and whether regular disaster recovery (DR) tests can be included as part of the service provided.

Email Security

According to recent HP Wolf Security Threat Insights, email is still the most popular means for cybercriminals to deliver malware and other threats, with over 75% of threats being sent via this medium. While it remains important for organisations to educate their employees on the risk of email phishing attacks and their many derivatives, additional controls still need to be implemented. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an important asset and should be implemented wherever possible. Powerful third-party email filtering systems need to be integrated into an organisation’s cybersecurity process to reduce the risk of threat exposure. On average, half of all emails sent daily are spam, each of which could contain a cyber-threat capable of significant network damage if executed.

Firewalls

Pivotal to any organisation’s cybersecurity posture is a powerful firewall to act as a barrier between the network and traffic flowing in and out. A firewall will validate and control network access by assessing traffic for Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and Indicators of Attack (IOAs), providing clear threat visibility and protection without compromising performance. It is advised to select a firewall which integrates and shares data with the endpoint protection solution in order to provide the best protection and threat response capabilities.

Managed Threat Response

More and more organisations are turning to outsourced Managed Threat Response (MTR) solutions as a means of proactively preventing cyberattacks. Finding and retaining a skilled cybersecurity team is a challenging concern that many organisations encounter. Datapac partners with Sophos to proactively hunt for and respond to threats on behalf of customers. It provides an in-house team of highly certified and experienced architects and collaborates with Sophos’ VIP priority support team as a multi-award-winning, platinum-level partner. Outsourcing to a highly experienced and accredited provider, such as Datapac, means proactive 24/7 monitoring and response capabilities for any IOCs detected. Not only does this afford the peace of mind that your business is being protected even outside normal office hours, it reduces the workload on internal cybersecurity teams, freeing up time to enable them to focus on other projects.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to improve your organisation’s cybersecurity and would like to speak with an expert please feel free to leave your details below for a free no-commitment call from a member of our team.

Damien Mallon, Senior Systems Engineer, Datapac

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