25 quick tips to ensure you have effective cybersecurity

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Adam Scheinberg, vice president of technology for Massey Services share his top cybersecurity tips:

1. Edge monitoring: Monitors traffic at the the point where the network connects to the internet or to other networks to identify and block malicious activity.
2. Email filtering: Filters email messages to prevent spam, malware and phishing attacks.
3. Encryption: Protects sensitive data from unauthorized access by converting the data into a form that is unreadable by unauthorized parties.
4. Embrace an aggressive patching schedule: Regularly patches of software fixes security vulnerabilities.
5. Egress awareness: Monitors outbound traffic to identify and block the unauthorized transfer of data from a computer or other device.
6. Exfiltration insight: Provides visibility into data exfiltration attempts to help organizations better identify and respond to threats.
7. Endpoint protection: Protects devices, such as laptops, desktops and mobile devices, from malware and other threats. It typically includes a variety of features, such as antivirus, anti-spyware and application control.
8. Exercise caution in password re-use: Avoid using the same password for multiple accounts to reduce the risk of account compromise.
9. Enforce multifactor authentication: Requires users to provide two or more forms of authentication to access systems, making it more difficult for attackers to gain unauthorized access.
10. External penetration testing: A third-party firm simulates an attack on your organization’s systems to identify and fix security vulnerabilities.
11. Enhance access control and permissions: Restrict access to systems and data to authorized users only.
12. Eliminate shared accounts: Avoid using shared accounts, as this can make it easier for attackers to gain unauthorized access.
13. Expunge admin rights from accounts: Removes administrator privileges from accounts that do not need them to reduce the risk of privilege escalation attacks — when an attacker gains unauthorized access to a system or network by exploiting a vulnerability.
14. Examine and update response plan: Regularly review and update your organization’s incident response plan to ensure it is up-to-date and effective.
15. Elevate the bar for remote connectivity: Users should use strong passwords and multifactor authentication when connecting to your organization’s system remotely. Hardware and software should be supported (i.e. receiving firmware or software security updates from the manufacturer), patched (all updates applied), and protected (some anti-malware or antivirus endpoint protection).
16. Establish a proper logging solution and retention timeframe: Logs all system activity and retains the logs for a specified period of time to help organizations investigate security incidents.
17. Extend security policy to remote devices: Apply your organization’s security policy to all devices, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets used to access your organization’s systems.
18. Employ a centrally-managed, cloud-hosted password manager: Use a password manager to store and manage passwords for all users in the organization.
19. Extract backups from network: Isolate backups from the network to prevent attackers from accessing them.
20. Educate users: Train users on security best practices to help them protect themselves from cyberattacks.
21. Experiment on users: Conduct simulated cyberattacks on users to test their security awareness and preparedness.
22. Eschew unnecessary alerting: Avoids sending alerts for minor incidents that do not require immediate attention.
23. Erase unneeded data: Delete unneeded data from your system to reduce the risk of data breaches.
24. Engage partners when you need to augment team skills: Partner with security firms that have the expertise and resources to help your organization address complex security challenges.
25. Equip yourself with information: Stay up-to-date on the latest security threats and best practices to help protect your organization from cyberattacks.