How to defend your business against security breaches?

Most of the businesses, nowadays, realize how important it is to have a comprehensive strategy for securing data to protect the organization, its employees as well as the clients. For small to medium businesses, this process is often a hassle free one owing to their size and less complicated business structures. For these companies a standard security plan is enough to achieve the data security needs. On the other hand, the enterprises have a more complicated business structure. There are structural challenges that they should meet including huge clientele, wide array of products and services offered across the globe with various internal departments. The crux is that the business data stored at the enterprises are in huge volumes. For them, it becomes even more necessary to ensure that there are no security breaches.

There are certain data breaches that can be easily taken care of. However, certain breaches, like the one that took place in Anthem are a nightmare for any enterprise. The need is to stay vigilant against the perpetrators. Anthem’s database, consisting of 80 million records of both clients and customers, was hacked. Databases are the treasure troves of a company. So how can businesses fight such breaches and ensure protection for their companies? Here are a few ways in which you can adopt to ensure that your stored data is safe.

Keep an Eye on Accounts

You will have to monitor your existing accounts. The very first thing that the companies must watch out for is someone trying to trick the call center and take away important information. The most common mode is that the perpetrators try to break into by using the security question from the gathered information at the call centers. This kind of fraud is quite common. Thus, it is vital that you watch out for unauthorized activities on all the accounts.

Security Solutions – Your Ultimate Requirement

Firewalls are no longer enough. With the help of the IT initiatives, it is now easy to come up with an integrated approach for securing important data. A solution working on multiple levels is what the contemporary businesses require. What you need is a blend of network, content and endpoint securities.

Opt for Security Testing

IT enterprises need security testing on a priority basis. Most of the solution providers think from the perspectives of the hackers and offer solutions accordingly. Besides identifying the loopholes, they also assess their impacts on your business.

Safeguard Your Mobile Work

It’s no longer the 90’s. It is an age where mobile devices are rampantly used by the staffs to deal with sensitive information. They are working out in the open. They are more than often connected wirelessly with networks while on the go. The need here is to ensure that the mobile technology is safe enough so as to important data can be shared.

Storing sensitive information on cloud is a big no-no

The cloud is in. it is being fact adopted by several organizations to ensure quick work procedures. Using the latest developments is fine but you must practice caution. Never store vital information on the cloud. If you do so, you are leaving out data in the virtual world. This is not advisable at all.

Know About Cloud Service Storage

If you are using cloud storage, read the user agreement first to know how it works. it is necessary to read the volumes of texts to know the cloud service you are planning to sign up for works.

Encryption is the best

By encrypting your data, you can protect it in the best possible way. If your hard drive gets stolen and your data is encrypted, it would be impossible to retrieve it. By far, it is one of the best tools to fight back the security breaches. For those who avail cloud services, use an encrypted cloud service.

Companies face numerous security challenges. Therefore, securing data is not an easy task for them. Besides adopting several measures, the best way is to educate the employees about the best practices so that they know how important their role is in defending the business from security breach. 

Test Security before Security is breached

The advent of Internet entrepreneurs around the globe has triggered the development and launch of web and mobile applications to an extent that every process is being probed for the possibility of turning it into an application. Every day, billions of digital interactions are accelerating operations, executing transactions and multiplying opportunities. This phenomenal rise in the adoption of digital assets is matched by the growing concerns on the status of information security.

Security Testing is more than Pre-emptive penetration with responsible disclosure

In a digital asset, a vulnerability is either discovered with security testing or is inevitably discovered at the expense of a security breach. Recurrent incidents of security breaches corrode the credibility of the information system’s security and can lead to a decline in the user base. Being one step ahead of a potential security breach is not a matter of advantage, it is the primary benchmark of commitment to information security.

Every information system is vulnerable as long as it is not absolutely isolated.

A smart phone enables a user to contact friends, post updates on social networks, send e-mails, play games, make financial transactions, order/purchase products. With sync options, hackers can choose a wide range of options to penetrate into your device and then penetrate the user’s accounts through the device. The same holds true for web applications, enterprise applications and e-commerce sites as well, although the penetration threats might be different.

Increased usage of IT demands multi-layer Security Testing

Social networks with amazing options to consolidate user generated content, e-mail services with staggering population of active user accounts and search engines with enormous data are blurring the line between the creation and consumption of data. Not very long ago, enterprises (including governments) have recognized the wealth of the digital identities and built processes to replace direct human interactions for recurrent processes wherever possible.

Risk mitigation inconstantly evolving scenarios

Thus we have mission critical scenarios spanning across multiple applications synched to a single device/e-mail id, payment transactions in handheld devices and desktops via apps, strategic access control in an organization, pathways to server etc. Security compromise of any single component spreads the risk to all the connected components and contacts making it imperative for the users to sanitize the overall security.

The sheer volume and diverse ways in which information is being exchanged makes SecurityTesting a high priority in a business strategy, and thus brings security testers high in demand. Prioritized risk mitigation allows business organizations to proceed with the initiatives with stringent security testing for the areas which deserve to be made resilient.

Security is a continuous concern and Security Testing is a consistent effort.

So how does an organization leverage Security Testing to ensure resilience, pre-empt defects and enable quick response? In the following three steps with resonant executions:

1.       Focus on high risk areas – Pockets of confidential information, business facing apps, mobile apps, web apps, network, server, cloud, ERP/Admin control panels and Key user accounts etc.

2.       Random testing on overall system – Execute attempts in scenarios which are often unthought of, unspecified in the requirements or considered as low risk

3.       Information Security specific eco system awareness - Contingency for estimated capacity of load balancer in case of DDOS attacks, knowledge of new breed of malware, virus and sanitization of bugs reported in the ecosystem