Cybersecurity is one of the most discussed topics in this era of digitalization. Companies that have a platform or website must follow this issue closely.
Furthermore, with so many dangers and threats in the virtual world, especially the presence of unencrypted websites and anonymous users, your business may be at risk.
What is cybersecurity?
Computer security, cybersecurity or, as it is better known, cybersecurity is the protection of systems connected to the internet against intrusions and virtual attacks.
Thus, these systems can be computers, servers, mobile devices, programs, networks, data and equipment. Furthermore, it is possible to understand cybersecurity as a set of actions and techniques capable of ensuring the integrity of systems.
An effective cybersecurity strategy provides good defense against malicious attacks that aim to access, alter, delete, or even steal an organization's or user's confidential data.
Furthermore, cybersecurity is also essential in preventing attacks that aim to disable or disrupt the operations of a system or device.
Cybersecurity Categories
It is interesting to note how the term “cyber security” has come to be applied to a wide variety of contexts, from business to mobile devices. In addition, several subdivisions were also created for the practice. The main ones are:
- Network security: is the practice of protecting a computer network against attackers, that is, those targeted attacks or opportunistic malware.
- Application security: security practice at the application level, that is, it can include software, hardware and procedures that identify vulnerabilities and keep the application free from threats.
- Information security: protects the integrity and privacy of data, both in storage (data at rest) and transmission (data in transit).
- Operational security: processes and decisions to manage and protect data assets. A data asset is any system, application, database, or any other location where data is stored in an organization. Therefore, operational security protects access permissions and procedures for storing information.
- Disaster recovery: process of restoring data after a cybersecurity incident or any other event that causes loss of operations or data. Furthermore, it is a way to return to the same operational capacity as before the “disaster”.
- Business Continuity: plan that the organization resorts to while trying to operate without certain resources in an adverse scenario.
- End user education: Addresses the most unpredictable cybersecurity factor of all: people. In other words, anyone can accidentally introduce a virus into a system if they don't follow good security practices. Furthermore, this happens with a frighteningly high frequency. Therefore, educating users to delete suspicious email attachments, not connect unidentified USB drives and several other important actions is essential for the organization's security.
How important is cybersecurity for your company?
In the world we live in, where a large part of commercial and social relationships pass through the virtual environment, cybersecurity has become a fundamental element. However, it is still very common to find companies that invest heavily in the development of their website, but neglect (or do not consider it important) to invest in security.
Furthermore, this issue only comes to light when they end up having some type of problem, realizing that the site was not really secure. For example, when they suffer a hacker attack (or cyberattack) that takes the website offline.
Especially because hackers are constantly evolving, becoming increasingly effective — in terms of knowing in depth the vulnerabilities of systems and platforms. Furthermore, these cyberattacks, when successful, end up negatively impacting the company's image.
After all, nowadays, the website is an extension of the company in the digital world. The physical storefront has given way to the virtual storefront, and store visits almost always take place remotely. Therefore, a customer's first contact with your company will most likely be through your website.
Therefore, even though the look and performance of the website are very important issues, it is essential to pay attention to security.
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Action plan to protect your company website
Firstly, we need to protect what we already have, creating all the necessary controls and incorporating layers of security into the website according to the available budget.
Furthermore, it is necessary to create a recovery plan in case of unforeseen events or attacks. Sometimes — often, in fact — we notice that companies don't even have a backup of their website. In other words, when this happens, owners or administrators tend to become desperate, as they cannot count on a regular backup after the site has been hacked.
Website backup
Regular backup is important to preserve your website's files, documentation and elements. Furthermore, it can be done daily, weekly or monthly. The more frequent, the higher the level of security.
However, daily backup is more efficient than weekly backup, which is more efficient than monthly backup. In other words, if your website content is updated every day and you suffer an attack, with a daily backup you can recover basically all the lost content.
Furthermore, the backup must be documented. The owner needs to have documentation of the backup frequency, because with this in hand it is possible to know exactly at what point to return to recover the files.
Finally, something important: the backup must be done offside. What does that mean? It should not be in the same location or server where your website is hosted. This is because if a hacker attacks your website, the backup will be safe elsewhere — on another server, hardware or storage.
Snapshot
It is interesting to mention that you must recover via backup or snapshot. And what is the snapshot?
Snapshot — or in Portuguese, instant copy — is the record of the state of a file, application or system at a certain point in time. In this way, it acts as if it were a “photo” of the data status at a given moment, allowing you to define the correct restore point in cases of errors, failures or attacks.
In other words, it is a virtual copy of the data. With it, you can quickly access the image of the machine before the problem occurs.
Pentest
Penetration or intrusion testing, colloquially known as pentest, is a simulated cyber attack on a computer system, carried out to evaluate the system's security.
Pen testing is a highly recommended security practice, because it seeks to map weaknesses and vulnerabilities — including the ability for hackers to gain access to your resources and data — as well as strengths. This way, it is possible to carry out a complete risk assessment.
The idea of pentest is to create a realistic attack scenario to understand how the target behaves in the face of intrusions. In addition, experts (or pentesters) also tend to include all parts of the infrastructure: networks, applications, connected devices and even physical security elements.
Just to close, a fun fact: people also call this mechanism ethical hacking — in Portuguese, “ethical hacking”. A fair name, after all, because if the attack is authorized and seeks to improve the level of security instead of harming it, it is ethical, right?
Simple everyday protective practices
Finally, we have one more point to say. It is important that you, as an individual, adopt some extremely simple actions in your daily life that can avoid huge headaches. These are easy and immediately applicable tips:
Update your software and operating system: This means you benefit from the latest security patches
Use an antivirus: Security solutions detect and remove threats
Use strong passwords: Make sure your passwords are not easy to guess
Do not open email attachments from unknown senders: they may be infected with malware
Do not click on links from unknown websites: Just like the previous one, this is a common way of spreading malware
Avoid using unsecured Wi-Fi networks in public places: Unsecured networks leave you vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
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