Mitigating cyber security threats is much easier when you identify the most pervasive risks. Security challenges are only compounding as cyber criminals advance in their malicious ways and exploit every possible weakness. From trade secrets to information on your customers, including their financial information, everything is at risk when you don’t take the necessary precautions and proactively protect yourself.

The headlines you read about breaches are generally those that impact the most people, so it’s easy to think cyber criminals target only the biggest companies – but in actuality, they’re going after everything from small businesses to government agencies to educational institutions.

The Most Common Threats

While the techniques hackers use continue to evolve, today’s most common threats include property theft, which gives them direct access to loads of sensitive information. They’re going after company phones and laptops and getting access to almost everything they want.

Another common threat today is the use of unauthorized devices that are unsecure and relatively easy to hack. When an employee brings in a device like this to work, whether it’s a phone, tablet, computer or even a USB drive, and connects to the network, they’re basically opening a door for cyber criminals.

Third-party software is another area that too many companies get burned with. IT staff should hold users accountable for any unsecured software and devise an education program to ensure everyone with access to the network doesn’t make this mistake.

Finally, sharing data externally is another huge risk. All data sharing should go through an encryption process and be approved by IT security risk managers.

How to Protect Yourself

Cyber resilience is achieved through education. The more you know, the more power you have to stop cyber criminals in their tracks. Therefore, IT security managers need to establish training sessions where the latest cyber security threats are defined and examples are given of how they’re carried out. Also, every employee should be aware of their accountability for their actions and the disciplinary actions that are handed out for failing to maintain cyber resilience.

You can also protect yourself by implementing the right technology. When you work with a third party professional, you have an expert in your corner, steering you in the direction that will give you a custom-fit security upgrade. That’s what we do at eXemplify.

Our approach is to put our years of experience to work for you. For example, we offer managed security solutions that take a comprehensive approach to securing clients. From reinforcing network protections to offering managed firewall technology, to analytics to stay ahead of threats, to advanced integration of machine learning and big data — we’ve got you covered. Contact us and let’s talk about your workflow, your current technology, and needs that are unique to your organization. We take a proactive approach to cyber security threats, so our clients are highly protected.