Best Practises to implement Cybersecurity measures in 2021 ╚╝High Tech Solutions for your company. Part 2.

§ How sensitive to security is your data? 

Breaches have been in augment for the last years. Today any company can fall victim to cybercrime. In part 1, we covered 1. considering biometric security, 2. creating a hierarchical cybersecurity policy, 3. employing a risk-based approach to security, 4. backup your data.

Part 2:

5. Manage IoT security

■ This year continues the trend from 2018 – IoT devices keep gaining popularity, while digital twins keep rising as well. For those of you that don't know what a digital twin or an IoT device is, well basically a digital twin is a digital copy of anything hardware most of the time. An IoT device is a piece of hardware that is usually smart and thus, connected to the internet.

There are predictions that the Internet of Things market will grow to about $520 billion in 2021. However, no matter how badly we want to see new technologies, safety always comes first, and this means cybersecurity has to be on the frontier developments.

The most challenging thing about IoT devices is their access to sensitive information. 

■ Security cameras, doorbells, smart door locks, heating systems, office equipment – all of these small parts of your business network are potential access points. Even if we applied it to a house through domotic.

A compromised printer, for instance, can allow malicious actors to view all documents that are being printed or scanned.

→ Here you have a few corporate network security best practices:

Conduct penetration testing to understand the real risks and plan your security strategy accordingly. 

1. Provide encryption for both data at rest and in transit (end-to-end encryption).
2. Ensure proper authentication to allow only trusted connections to endpoints. The best practice is to have a ZTA (Zero Trust Access) service provider applied.
3. Don’t use default hard-coded credentials: commonly used passwords are easy to find on the internet.
4. Purchase a secure and up-to-date router and enable the firewall. And if you have a budget, buy a penetration test, so you can identify where you are exposed.
5. Develop a scalable security framework to support all IoT deployments.
6. Consider implementing endpoint security solutions.
7. Use multi-factor authentication. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a must-have solution for advanced security strategies. While is still basic protection. And you could consider a biometric solution for this type of purpose, which would add various security layers on top of the MFA basic protection. 

■ Though it’s a basic implementation, MFA still belongs among the cybersecurity best practices. It’s so effective that the National Cyber Security Alliance has even added MFA to its safety awareness and education campaign.

MFA helps you protect sensitive data by adding an extra layer of security, leaving malicious actors with almost no chance to log in as if they were you unless they perform an identity attack. So having security there is crucial too!

Even if a malicious actor had your password, they would still need your second and maybe third “factor” of authentication, such as a security token, your mobile phone, your fingerprint, or your voice.

As an added benefit, MFA also allows you to clearly distinguish among users of shared accounts, improving your access control. Leverage blockchain solutions to take it to the next level.

6. Handle passwords securely

■ It always pays to mention the importance of thoughtful passwords and secure password handling. 

Password management is a key part of corporate security, especially when it comes to privileged access management (PAM). Privileged accounts are gems for cybercriminals who attempt to gain access to your sensitive data and the most valuable business information.

The eternal dichotomy in security: the more secure it is, the more reasons why eCriminals want to get in. The best way to ensure proper security is to use specialized tools, such as password vaults and PAM solutions. This way, you can prevent unauthorized users from accessing privileged accounts and simplify password management for employees at the same time.

■ The first thing you need to know is that a password needs to be long, complex, and fully unique. It should be easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. Don’t take this task lightly, and stop telling your passwords to people, be responsible with the weight of knowing those has.

Criminals still use password spray attacks to steal sensitive information, disrupt operations, and harm both an organization’s finances and reputation aka extortion and brand public downfall.

Here are the major tips you should consider when creating password requirements for your employees:  

√ Use one password for one account.

 √ Use memorable phrases instead of short strings of random characters.

√ Use mnemonics or other individual tactics to remember long passwords.

√ No sharing credentials with each other, no matter how convenient.

√ Require employees to change passwords after a set period of time.

And the last one for today:

7. Use the principle of least privilege

■ Beware: Having too many privileged users accessing your data is extremely dangerous.

Granting new employees all privileges by default allows them to access sensitive data even if they don’t necessarily need to. Such an approach increases the risk of insider threats and allows hackers to get access to sensitive data as soon as any of your employee accounts is compromised.

→ A much better solution is to use the principle of least privilege.

In other words, assign each new account the fewest privileges possible and escalate privileges if necessary. And when access to sensitive data is no longer needed, all corresponding privileges should be immediately revoked.

Pro tip: Check the privileged box BEFORE telling an employee that they are fired. There are a lot of people that hate accountability, and love to destroy things on their way out. If you were a good boss, and a solid person that did the right thing for the right reasons: if you kept it real on your end, you can’t control how other people will react, but you can certainly minimize the damage.

■ Constant privilege management can be difficult and time-consuming, especially for large companies, but there are a lot of access management solutions on the market that can make it easier, and we can certainly help you with that.

Particularly, specialized PAM solutions can prove a lifesaver when you need to deal with uncontrolled privileges.

■ The principle of least privilege seems similar to the zero-trust security model, which is also designed to reduce the risk of insider threats by significantly reducing unwarranted trust. But what the zero trust practice says, is to grant access only to those users and devices that have already been authenticated and verified in the system.

Now you know better!

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