How to secure an organization from hackers in 2022?

We live in the digital era. Almost everything we do is done digitally. From ordering food online to keeping in touch with friends and family, everything happens on the internet. While there are so many good things the internet has brought to us, including saving our time and making our lives easier, there are certain drawbacks to it as well.

We live in a time and age when all our sensitive information is stored digitally. If this isn’t protected well, online miscreants, often known as hackers, can misuse all of our sensitive information. Now, what do we mean by hacking?

Hacking is an activity that puts your computers, phones, tablets, systems, networks, etc. at risk. Even though it isn’t always done with criminal intent, it is considered illegal. Most of the hackers are in it for the money, or for spying purposes. There have been incidents where hackers have hacked accounts or websites just because they could.

How to secure an organization from hackers in 2022?
How to secure an organization from hackers in 2022?

With tons of sensitive information available online, it becomes imperative that organizations employ high levels of security against hackers. Let’s talk about some of the ways an organization can do that.

Educate Your Team

It’s pretty obvious that everyone in your company uses the internet and they all must own at least one digital device. What is important to note, though, is not everyone who uses the internet is well aware of how to be safe online. It becomes the organization’s responsibility to educate the employees about all the harm that may befall them over the internet.

You can start by teaching them what phishing is. Phishing websites are made to look similar to the actual site and it’s important to be careful when clicking on these links. It’s important to reinforce that your organization also holds a lot of customer information, which will be put at risk if the employees are not careful. Another thing you can do is to teach your employees the need to create strong passwords and update them regularly. Ethical Hacking course online provides in-depth understanding and skills to deal with Hacking issues.

Keep Your Software Up-to-Date

There is certain software that your organization must be used to store critical data. Software companies keep adding lines of defenses in their software and these are released in the regular software updates. It is important that you keep updating your software or the new set of protocols won’t apply.

Use Only Trusted Software

Never download software from a site you don’t trust. One of the easiest ways hackers can send malware into your systems is by creating an application that looks just like the software you’re trying to install. Malware can cause a lot of damage to your system or your network. To stop this from happening, you need to make sure whatever software you install, you check the website first. Once you’ve checked the website, you need to go through the reviews, and only if the reviews are favorable, must you go ahead with the download.

Regular Password Updates

One of the easiest tricks is to simply update all your passwords. It helps keep hackers at bay. Your organization can decide on specific intervals when you change all the passwords. Changing passwords at an interval of three to four months is advised.

Using Different Passwords

Even though the idea of using the same password for all your accounts might seem tempting, it makes your defenses weaker. What if a hacker gets through one of your password-protected accounts, do you think it would take them long to figure out the rest? No, because all your passwords are the same.

This is one of the reasons why it is highly advised that you use different passwords for all your accounts. It adds an extra line of defense.

Password Management Tool

Using a password management tool can help your organization’s online security. It can make it easy for you to know who has access to what, and at the same time you can revoke someone’s access whenever you want.

A password management tool helps you manage your passwords, but it adds another layer of security on top. It is capable of generating a random new password every time, making it difficult for hackers to harm your accounts. It also encrypts all your credentials so nobody outside your organization will have any access to them.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication has been in use for some time now. It basically adds another step into accessing your account. Organizations can make it mandatory for all the employees to use it. Even if the hacker is somehow able to go through the first line of defense, it’s highly unlikely that they will be able to access your secondary device linked to the account.

Anti-Phishing Toolbar

If your team isn’t very tech-savvy and you need a more reliable solution, you can install an anti-phishing toolbar in your web browser. This toolbar will warn you of possible threats and block the website if it seems harmful. So, you can surf the web relaxed and let the toolbar do its job.

Limiting Access to Sensitive Info

An unfortunate incident could prop-up in your organization when an employee who has left the organization, still has access to information. It could be a simple thing like forgetting to revoke their accounts and access, but you never know what damage an unhappy employee could wreck. When you’re dealing with sensitive information, it’s important to be fully aware.

Employing Ethical Hackers

Ethical Hacking
Ethical Hacking

Another way to secure your organization from hackers is by taking help from hackers. There’s an emerging field of Ethical hacking with more and more companies hiring ethical hackers to make sure their data is completely safe.

Confused?

There are three different categories of hackers. The first one, called the black hat hackers, are the ones who do all the damage to your systems. These are the ones that hack with criminal intent, to steal information, to sell it further, etc. Then there is the second category of hackers, the white hat hackers or ethical hackers. Ethical hackers are employed by companies to find possible flaws in their security, fix them, and save them from a cyberattack.

The third category, or grey hat hackers, are the ones who hack into systems to show that it’s possible and then charge some money to fix the security of the system.

There should be no surprise then, that there is such a huge demand for ethical hackers in the market. A lot of companies depend on them to keep their sensitive information secure. You can also employ an ethical hacker to help keep your organization secure or you could get your employees to upskill.

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