Protect your Business by Implementing Physical Security Tactics to your Cyber Strategy

Businesses that fail to follow best practices for protecting themselves against a cyber attack are easy prey for cyber criminals. After an attack, your choices are either paying millions in ransom for your data or trying to recreate it from scratch.

Business failure is a potential risk.

Protecting your data is equally important as protecting your physical assets, and in some cases it’s actually more important. Yet some businesses and other entities are still ignoring the threats of cyber crime. According to John Griffin Jr., CEO & Founder of AGB Investigative Services, a provider of cybersecurity and physical security services, it’s common for businesses to devote a larger share of resources to the protection of their physical assets than to protecting their data and other cyber assets.?

We are all used to thinking of security in terms of locks and controlling physical access. It’s easy to focus on things like locking doors but much harder to set up strong cyber security. Whether your shop is protected by an old-fashioned lock and key or has a 24/7 on-site team overseeing a digital security system, it’s unlikely that any business, no matter how small, is leaving the front door wide open and unattended. However, it’s not at all uncommon for small business owners to think they’re not at risk of cyber crime because they’re a smaller organization.

Yet the FBI’s Internet Crime Report 2020 offers details that prove cyber crime is widespread. We read about the meat packing plants, hospitals, oil pipelines, financial services, schools, governmental bodies and big businesses that are forced to pay millions in ransom to criminal organizations. We don’t always hear about individuals and small businesses that are attacked.

It’s folly for any small business, nonprofit or other type of organization to assume their small size makes them safer than a wealthy multinational corporation.

Griffin recommends you take these steps:

• Perform a security audit. This is a basic step every organization of every size should do. Inventory every cyber asset and note its vulnerabilities. Include all network-attached devices. This includes smartphones and any other “smart” tech in place.?
• Ensure everyone in the organization is using appropriately strong passwords and two-factor authentication. Install a network firewall. Encrypt all data. These things alone are not enough to completely eliminate the danger of hackers gaining control of your system, but they can slow them down.?
• Set up real-time monitoring and perform regular penetration tests. Assign an incident response team that can respond immediately to any breach.?
• Plan for ongoing cyber awareness education for the entire organization. Every single employee must understand security protocols. Phishing expeditions and other threats are constantly changing and are sometimes clever and difficult to detect. Constant vigilance is vital.
• Consider integrating physical and cyber security. Hiring a security specialist can help implement a personalized plan.

Learn more on How Physical Security Best Practices Can Be Applied to Cybersecurity

About John Griffin, Jr. CEO of AGB Investigative Services

John Griffin, Jr.

A nationally trained, full-spectrum security and cyber expert, John Griffin, Jr., has been involved in high-level security prevention and investigations for the past 20 years. Mr. Griffin is a certified Forensic Expert Witness and actively collaborates with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. He received his computer forensics training from The Department of Defense, The Department of Homeland Security, and The United States Secret Service.

In 2001 Mr. Griffin founded AGB Investigative Services with his wife Dr. Denitra Griffin. As the nation’s largest Black-owned security company, AGB offers expertise in all aspects of security, including physical and cyber. Mr. Griffin has received many awards acknowledging AGB’s accomplishments. He was awarded as an Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist in 2018. For three years, AGB was named “Crain’s Fast 50,” one of the fastest growing businesses in Chicago as well as one of Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing businesses in the United States in 2018, 2019 and 2020.