Security Resolutions for 2018

As the new year comes into focus, it’s time to look towards the security improvements your company can make for 2018.  It’s likely that you’ve run into more than a few situations where you thought “We should probably do that to improve our security.”  Whatever “that” is, its time to put it front and center for 2018.

After the attacks and breaches of 2017, the landscape has changed yet again.  Countermeasures that were seen as products all for the fortune 500 are now commonplace in all sizes of businesses.  It’s likely in 2018 that the actors who perpetrate their acts are going to step up their game and you should do.

1.  Deploy a SIEM and Managed Security Operations Center solution – Let’s assume that if a determined hacker were to break into your network, would you know they got in?  IT often spends a significant amount of time trying to block the door that the ongoing monitoring takes a back seat.  Security now starts with knowing what happening so you can build a better front door.
2. Security Awareness Training (Anti-phishing exercise) – In many ways, 2017 was the year of the phish and subsequently the year of teaching users to avoid the problem in the first place.  If you are not testing your users’ prowess on detecting malicious emails, you need to make this a priority for 2018.
3. Run a Table Top Exercise – A table top is not something that you’ve seen in Stranger Things but its awfully similar.  Table Tops can take as little as 20 minutes.  Essentially, get your team to a meeting an draw a scenario of a breach.  For instance, a hacker has broken into your VPN and is now roaming around your network, what do you do next?  It’s a chilling exercise, but incredibly beneficial.  The opportunity to talk through not only what to do but how to expel the attacker from your network is eye-opening.
4. Enable Multifactor Across Your Cloud Services – Most cloud providers include this at low to no cost.  There is an impact on users but perhaps you can sneak this one into the slow holiday weeks of 2017.  Multifactor authentication is the poster child for the kind of function that was only seen in the large enterprise but has now trickled down to all businesses.

We hope that you set your sights on improving your overall security in 2018 as its likely we’ll see more attacks next year.  Unfortunately, it’s not an area that bad guys are slowing down. Contact Thrive to learn more.