How Can Companies Prevent Cyber Attacks?

Posted on December 15, 2022December 5, 2023 by Alexa Purk

Did you know that a cyber attack takes place somewhere on the internet once every 39 seconds? This would help explain why more than 60% of companies have been the victims of at least one cyber attack at this point.

It would be almost impossible for your company to prevent cyber attacks altogether. If you let your guard down for even a second while running a business, you’ll open yourself up to different types of cyber threats.

There are, however, some cybersecurity tips that you can put to the test to virtually eliminate the chances of cyber attacks happening. We’ve put together a list of these tips below so that you’re able to beef up your company’s online security as part of your business management process.

Here are several ways in which your company can prevent cyber attacks and stop them from wreaking havoc on your operations.

Table of Contents

Start by Learning About the Different Types of Cyber Attacks

If your company is going to make a push to prevent cyber attacks, you’re going to need to be familiar with all the different types of cyber attacks that can take place. There are dozens of kinds of attacks that can occur online.

Some of the most common types of cyber attacks are:

Malware
Ransomware
Phishing
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks
And more

The truth is that your company’s network can be attacked in all kinds of ways, so you’re going to have to keep your guard up at all times. Otherwise, it’s only going to be a matter of time before one of the types of cyber attacks rears its ugly head and takes your network down.

Set Up a Firewall for Your Company’s Network

Does your company’s network have a firewall surrounding it at this time? If you don’t know the answer to this question, you should find out immediately. And if you discover that it doesn’t have a firewall set up, you should work to change that ASAP.

A firewall isn’t going to completely stop cyber attacks from happening. But it should be able to put up a fight against any brute force assaults against your company’s network.

Bottom line: You’re going to feel like your company’s network is safer and more secure simply by setting up a firewall for it. This firewall should provide you with some peace of mind and help you sleep a little bit better at night.

Update Your Company’s Software and Systems on a Regular Basis

Your company more than likely utilizes all kinds of software and systems throughout the course of a normal day. When you first install these software and systems, they should be every bit as secure as you need them to be.

But over time, those who might want to do harm to your company’s network can find ways to weasel their way onto it through these software and systems. For this reason, it’ll be very important for you to keep all your software and systems updated regularly.

When you update software and systems, it’ll often add security patches to them that will make them less vulnerable. It’s why it’s so imperative that you make it a point to update software and systems as soon as they tell you that it’s time to do it.

Create Individual Accounts for Your Employees With Unique Sign-Ins

When your employees come into work each day, they should be able to get onto your company’s network with ease. But they shouldn’t be able to do it by simply turning their computers and/or other devices on.

Instead, each of your employees should have their own individual accounts that come complete with unique sign-ins for them. It’ll enable you to monitor who is using your network at any given moment. It’ll also let you pinpoint where a problem may have started if your network is ever compromised in any way.

Your employees should have both user names and passwords that are unique to them and difficult to guess. It’ll prevent cyber attacks from being caused by your employees signing onto your network while they’re at work.

Train Your Employees to Spot Potential Cyber Attacks

Unfortunately, it’s not all that uncommon for the employees at companies to inadvertently cause cyber attacks to take place. Many hackers have started to use so-called phishing scams to trick those who work for companies to give them access to their networks.

Oftentimes, these phishing scams will involve hackers sending those who work at companies emails that look legitimate from top to bottom. These emails will typically appear to be from the CEO of these companies or other high-ranking officials, and they’ll encourage people to click a link or take some other action.

Employees won’t always think twice about doing this since it’ll appear as though they’re just doing what their employers want them to do. By the time they realize they’ve helped launch a cyber attack against their company, it’s too late.

With all this in mind, your company needs to train employees to be on the lookout for phishing scams like this as well as other cyber attacks. You should let them know that they should always be skeptical about any emails they receive and run them by your IT team before doing anything else.

Back Up All Your Company’s Data Early and Often

Over the years, your company is going to collect its fair share of data. Ideally, all of this data should be stored on a secure server that will be just about impossible for those outside your company to access.

You should also create a place where you can back up all your company’s data just in case someone is able to access your server and steal your data. By doing this, you’ll be able to prevent cyber attacks from resulting in you losing data.

You will also need to make it your mission to back up your data when it’s time to do it. The more frequently you back up your data, the more data you’ll be able to recover at a later date if necessary.

Your company’s data is going to be its lifeblood in a lot of ways. You’ll want to go above and beyond to ensure it isn’t ever compromised.

Keep Tabs on Who Is Accessing Your Network Each Day

Do you know who is accessing your network day in and day out? As long as your employees are required to sign into the network, you might be under the impression that you don’t have to worry about who might be lurking on your network each day.

But the truth of the matter is that, even if you have your employees signing into your network, you still might have people on it who aren’t supposed to be there. It’s why you need to monitor your network constantly and give anyone who doesn’t appear to belong on it the boot.

Some companies won’t pay attention to who is on their network, and they’ll end up getting hit with a cyber attack carried out by a hacker who was right under their nose the whole time. You can prevent cyber attacks like this by keeping a much closer eye on what’s happening on your network every day.

Make Sure Outsiders Aren’t Able to Access Your WiFi Network

Most companies have set up WiFi networks within their offices at this point so that employees don’t always need to have their computers plugged into their networks to get online. These WiFi networks have made things more convenient for many employees.

But at the same time, WiFi networks are also to blame for lots of the cyber attacks that occur in this country every year. If you leave your WiFi network open to the public and don’t protect it with a password, you could be inviting unsavory characters to join it.

You should, first and foremost, hide your WiFi network as best you can from everyone except your employees. You should also create a very hard-to-guess password for your WiFi network so that not just anyone is able to get access to it.

There is nothing wrong with having a WiFi network within your offices. But you will need to be mindful of its security and do whatever it takes to ensure that only your employees are able to use it.

Test the Safety and Security of Your Network Every So Often

You might think that your company’s network is safe and secure right now since it hasn’t allowed any successful cyber attacks. But is it really safe and secure, or have you just not been hit with any cyber attacks as of late?

To test your network out so that you can see how it holds up, you might want to have your IT team launch a fake cyber attack against your network. It’ll put your network to the test and see how it responds while a cyber attack is taking place.

In a perfect world, your network will hold up just fine and won’t let a cyber attack get through and do any damage. But if it shows any signs of weakness, it’ll suggest that you might need to toughen up your network so that it’s prepared for the real thing.

You should try not to get lulled into a false sense of security and assume your network is safe just because it hasn’t allowed any cyber attacks. These cyber attacks might be on the verge of happening, and if your network isn’t ready for them, it could spell trouble for your company.

Hire an IT Support Team to Help You Prevent Cyber Attacks

We’ve referred to your company’s IT team a couple of times now and have assumed that you have one. But do you?

If you don’t, bringing IT professionals on board to help you prevent cyber attacks will be a must! You aren’t going to be able to stop cyber attacks for very long if you don’t have any knowledgeable IT specialists on your team.

You can go ahead and create an in-house IT support team if you have the budget to do it. But you might also want to consider working with an outsourced IT support team that can prevent cyber attacks for you.

Just make sure you search for the best IT support Los Angeles has to offer. There are so many IT companies that would be willing to help you, but not all of them will be up for the challenge.

Do your research on each of the individual IT support companies in your area to find out which ones might be the best options of the bunch. You can then hire the company that you like the most and put them in charge of doing whatever it’s going to take to prevent cyber attacks from here on out.

Cyber Attacks Shouldn’t Be a Problem When You Take These Steps

Cyber attacks come with the territory when you own a company. These attacks will be launched against you at some point, and you’ll need to be 100% ready to respond.

You should be able to prevent cyber attacks by taking some, if not all, of the steps listed here. They’ll make cybersecurity a much bigger issue within your company, and they’ll guarantee that you don’t get caught off-guard the next time a hacker decides to try to infiltrate your company’s network.

Would you like to obtain more cybersecurity tips that can benefit your company? Find them in some of our other blog articles.