Cybersecurity: best practices for managing your company’s data

While technology moves toward bringing a series of benefits to society, cyberattacks are moving in the opposite direction. Therefore, focusing on cybersecurity practices is essential.

Risky activities such as sharing passwords, accessing malicious websites, and downloading from unknown sources are very common, and it’s crucial to show how seemingly harmless actions can be gateways to major scams.

To help you stay on top of what’s needed to maintain your company’s cybersecurity, we’ve developed this post. Continue reading to learn how to become a leading brand in digital security.

What is cybersecurity?

To make the war against cybercriminals more just, there’s cybersecurity. Cybersecurity, a term that represents advanced methods for detecting, monitoring, and preventing security breaches in computers, servers, mobile devices, and electronic systems.

The importance of this set of practices is mainly related to data protection, cost reduction by preventing attacks, maintaining compliance with personal data protection laws, contributing to ESG Governance , as well as preserving brand reputation.

Various online environments and devices can benefit from it, such as applications, databases, cell phones, applications, servers, websites, online stores, and even companies.

Types of cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a vast field, and therefore divided into different areas to make internet browsing safer across different environments and devices. Below, we’ll discuss the types and their importance.

Network security

Practices aimed at identifying and preventing attacks by malicious programs that tend to steal information.

Among the main actions within companies, we can mention the adoption of policies for secure web use and control of access and data use.

Operational safety

It ensures that all processes run securely in a trusted environment.

This means that it defines processes, decisions and a culture based on the correct handling of documents and information, especially those of the company’s customers.

Software security

Software-focused security aims to protect operating systems, servers, and other tools against vulnerabilities and malicious actions.

Various software programs are part of the daily routine of companies, involving communication, administration, team management, contracts and finances, and maintaining the security and quality of services is of utmost importance.

Cloud security

Similar to activities carried out to promote network security, cloud security seeks to anticipate threats that surround devices that share access to platforms within this ecosystem. 

It prevents unauthorized data disclosure while protecting the cloud against vulnerabilities. Another important function is detecting weaknesses in access control, aiming to prevent any instability in cloud computing services.

Application Security

Apps are also major sources of crime, precisely because they can present security vulnerabilities at various points, from download to user registration.

Best practices for managing your company’s data

More important than knowing what cybersecurity is, is putting good practices into action whenever possible. 

Below are the steps we’ve taken to help you in this important mission of keeping your company safe and free from digital attacks.

Penetration testing

Also known as a pin test , this action involves simulating a digital attack, usually carried out by a cybersecurity expert in a controlled environment.

Therefore, the professional will perform the actions that a real criminal would do, thus finding any vulnerabilities in the system and adjusting security.

Real-time monitoring

This strategy involves controlling access and other activities on the company’s networks and software, almost automatically identifying any suspicious action.

This means that any type of suspicious activity or intrusion can be quickly identified and controlled, preventing greater losses compared to companies that do not have this monitoring system.

Employee training

This is a very important point. Your organization’s culture should also be guided by cybersecurity and compliance with the General Data Protection Law (LGPD).

Imagine a customer service organization with 100 employees. Thousands of customers are served every month, and many transactions and information exchanges occur.

Consider the following scenario: this team hasn’t received any training on not sharing passwords, identifying phishing and malicious activity, or enabling two-step authentication on their email accounts and other access points.

The number of breaches would be countless, simply due to a lack of training. For this and other reasons, it’s crucial to have a dedicated cybersecurity department within the company that’s accessible to everyone on the team.

Keep your antivirus up to date

It’s not uncommon to find machines that appear to be protected, but when examined closely, they are completely at the mercy of malware and phishing attacks because the antivirus software is disabled or out of date.

It’s crucial to pay attention to this software’s notifications and follow the developer’s instructions. Don’t delay daily updates and scans.

Encourage safe browsing

Your team needs to understand that the security of the company’s network and devices also depends on them, meaning accessing questionable websites and unknown domains can be dangerous!

It’s crucial to provide guidance on clicking suspicious links and downloading from unsafe sources. One important tip is to block unauthorized downloads and access to certain websites.

Removable devices can be a threat

Even though the use of flash drives and disks is no longer as prevalent as it was a few years ago, it is still possible to find these devices in the daily lives of different organizations.

The problem is that viruses can attack these devices, creating a network of malware installed silently by the employee himself, without his knowledge.

The tip here is to adopt more innovative means of transferring documents, such as cloud systems.

Set rules and access limits

The point here is not to distrust your employees, but to limit access to sensitive and highly confidential data to only those people related to them.

The more people have access to such critical information, the greater the chances of leaks, which may even be unintentional.

In addition to rules, set strict limits on password access and sharing.

Encryption

You’ve probably heard of encryption , especially after the WhatsApp messaging app publicized this good practice they adopted.

This term represents a mathematical and computational technique that turns information into readable elements that are impossible for unauthorized individuals to identify.

Therefore, even if an encrypted document is stolen, it remains useless to a criminal, for example.

Cloud storage

Finally, we cannot forget a very safe practice that offers other benefits such as stability, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use: cloud computing.

This form of archiving does not use physical elements, such as HDDs and servers, to store documents, data and other elements that are fundamental to a company’s operations.

Simply put, the cloud is a virtual space that can be accessed from anywhere, as long as you have access and authentication credentials.