By Gergo Varga, Senior Content Manager / Evangelist at SEON
Cyber attacks have become a part of our reality, not only that we are all constantly getting phishing emails, but you can read about some cyber attack or data breach happening on a daily basis. Some of the attacks are concentrated on large businesses like Volkswagen & Audi or tech giants like Twitch, Facebook, Linkedin, but the truth is that nobody is safe. By October of 2021, according to Fortune’s research, there had been nearly 281.5 million people affected by some sort of data breach. That means that there is a high chance that you and your business will be affected by some type of cyber attack, unless you start being proactive and fight against it.
How to protect yourself from cyber attacks?
The only way to effectively fight back against cyber attacks is by implementing a cyber security plan which includes various tools and policies that make it impenetrable. Let us introduce you to everything you need to know to fight against cyber attacks and how to implement it in your cyber security plan.
Implement device fingerprinting
One of the tools that should be added to any security is device fingerprinting. In short, device fingerprinting is a process of collecting and analysing different variables of users’ devices like its software and hardware configurations to create a unique user profile. SEON’s view on device fingerprinting, shows us how crucial it can be in fighting against cyber attacks. By creating a unique profile or device fingerprint for each user you can recognize when some of the variables change and confirm if it is a legitimate change in user details or suspicious behaviour. This way you can stop the fraud attempt before it even happens.Use multi-factor authentication
This is a great tool to use to provide an extra layer of security, especially when used together with device fingerprinting. It asks users to provide extra verification before giving them access to their accounts, like a special code being sent to the user’s device. This can come especially handy if there is a difference in users device fingerprint, as it can confirm if they are legitimate users or if they are attempting an account takeover.
Train your employees
Your employees are the most important element of your business, and also its biggest security risk. Most of the cyber attacks will try to use the human element of the business in order to get access to confidential data like their credentials, bank account details, or even intellectual property. This is why it is extremely important to educate your employees about what are the cyber threats and risks, how to recognize them, and how to fight against them. Report to cyber threats from Netwrix, explains that 58% of all organizations claimed that their employees do not follow cyber security guidelines. Truth is that if you are not proactive about the fight against cyber attacks, neither will your employees be, regardless of your guidelines, especially if nobody is enforcing them. This is why it is extremely important to have a clear and easy to understand cyber security policy and to keep your employees informed about emerging threats.
Introduce the password policy
This step might seem small, but it can make an enormous difference in your cyber security plan. Did you know that 81% of hacking-related breaches happened due to stolen and/or weak passwords? Considering that a large number of people use either the same or similar passwords for all of their accounts, one breach can cause a domino effect and put all of the other accounts in danger. Introducing password policy for your employees and also your users can significantly reduce the risk of data breach.
Update software and systems regularly
Cyber criminals will exploit all the weaknesses they can to gain access to your confidential data, and by not updating software and systems you are opening doors wide open for them. This is at the same time the easiest and one of the most important elements of your cyber security plan as it stops cyber criminals before they can even access your network.
It is difficult to know where to start when it comes to fighting against cyber attacks, especially because new threats are emerging every day. By implementing these steps into your cyber security plan, you will set your business on the right path in the fight against cyber attacks.
About the Author
Gergo Varga, Senior Content Manager / Evangelist at SEON. He has been fighting online fraud since 2009 at various companies – even co-founding his own one, enbrite.ly. He’s the author of the Fraud Prevention Guide for Dummies – SEON Special edition. He currently works as the Senior Content Manager / Evangelist at SEON, using his industry knowledge to keep marketing sharp, communicating between the different departments to understand what’s happening on the frontlines of fraud detection.
He lives in Budapest, Hungary, and is an avid reader of philosophy and history.
Gergo can be reached via Our company website https://seon.io/
