Compliance standards are highly effective when providing security services as an MSP. Here we share a specific case, where one of our partners has managed to positively impact their bottom line, by providing Cyber Essentials certification suing the CyberSmart platform.

Golum IT, a London-based MSSP and security consultancy faced a big challenge: clearly demonstrate the value of their added services to their customers. Despite using the latest technologies, well trained sales people and account managers, the company found it difficult to showcase how much impact their work added to the cybersecurity of their clients. 

Introducing monthly reporting

As an initial step, the company began providing extensive reports to its customers on a monthly basis. These reports contained an extreme level of detail about threats faced and preventive measures deployed. To Golum IT’s surprise, even the deepest of insights on the effectiveness of measures deployed, struggled to nudge the scepticism of their client base.

Ultimately it was identified that, besides skim reading over the executive summary, these reports remained largely unread; the problem wasn’t the level of reporting, but simply the complexity and sheer volume of information provided.

Introducing external benchmarks

In order to maintain a high level of transparency, whilst simplifying reporting, Golum IT decided to introduce external standards to measure the effectiveness of their work. Although basic on the surface, the Cyber Essentials standard, with its 5 control areas, provided “headings” for every measure in place. In other words, instead of reading through X amount of pages of reporting, customers now receive a 1 page report, outlining the alignment of the company’s security posture to Cyber Essentials and what can be done to improve. 

Results

Initially there was concern that Cyber Essentials was perceived as too basic to be used as a benchmark. In reality however, the brevity and clarity of reporting was more important than the need for in-depth knowledge. Of course, in some instances customers have additional questions, however they are very specific and based on reports produced. 

By introducing these reports based on the CyberSmart platform, customers  clearly saw and understood the value of its implementation, leading to more deployment and sign-ups of CyberSmart.

CyberSmart has become an official supplier on G-Cloud 11, a major government procurement framework. 

G-Cloud, created in 2014 by the Crown Commercial Service and Government Digital Service, makes government procurement easier, transparent and much more efficient, reducing the usual lengthy procurement processes from weeks/months down to days. It is straightforward and well guided.

After making it through a rigorous tender process, which ensured our products and services fit in with the needs of G-Cloud, we were confirmed as a supplier from July 2019, ensuring cybersecurity compliance and assurance are easily accessible to everyone on the framework.

The framework allows the central government, local authorities, NHS Trusts, Ministry of Defense and other public sector bodies (including agencies and arm’s length bodies) to access a central website and purchase cloud-based services. 

With CyberSmart Active Protect in G-Cloud 11, the tools are in place to ensure full cybersecurity compliance and assurance in public sector bodies and meet recognised cybersecurity standards across full organisations. 

From ensuring all devices are continuously compliant; to achieving certifications, often on the same day, such as Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus or IASME GDPR Ready, the opportunity is now clear and much faster than before.

Jamie Ahktar, CyberSmart’s CEO said: “ Cybersecurity in the public sector is a matter of great concern, so we are happy to be able to provide our innovative platform and products, to support and safeguard key British organisations. Being included in G-Cloud 11 is yet another endorsement of CyberSmart’s platform, and is testament to our already successful and growing relationship with the public sector.”

Can you purchase via G-Cloud 11? See here for government guidance or contact us.

We are happy to announce, CyberSmart has secured £1.3 million in new financing led by deep-tech investor IQ Capital, after two years in stealth mode. This funding will allow us to further accelerate our rapid growth, build next-generation technical capabilities and secure Britain’s future as a leader in cybersecurity.

CyberSmart’s core mission is to protect and empower SMEs, often the weak link in cybersecurity, but at the same time, the bread and butter of UK business landscape. CyberSmart’s platform and products allow any size SME, with or without technical resources, to protect itself and its staff, easily and affordably. The exciting platform is bringing cybersecurity standards to the masses, with millions of UK SMEs in its sights, a truly scalable cybersecurity solution.

CyberSmart is able to automatically check, fix and certify for Cyber Essentials compliance - a UK government cybersecurity certification. This is recommended by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and is increasingly required across supply chains in multiple industries. 

A Cyber Essentials certification is easily attainable via the CyberSmart platform, reducing the cost and resource typically required to achieve compliance to a matter of hours. SMEs are able to maintain 24/7 compliance across multiple devices, a considerable challenge for most  SMEs. The products offers simplicity and scalability to a complex and manual process.

The London-based startup backed by IQ Capital and Seedcamp was founded by Jamie Akhtar and Mariella Thanner in January 2017. It uses cutting-edge technology and data science to assess and address a company’s cyber compliance and vulnerabilities. Designed to offer SMEs an innovative approach to compliance, it is being used by fast-growing (“Thriva, LiveSmart, Receipt Bank”), and more established businesses (“Hitachi, The Supreme Court”) alike. 

CyberSmart helps organisations identify weaknesses in their information security practices and develop proactive strategies to address cybersecurity threats, thwarting up to 99.3% of cyber threats.

Commenting on the announcement, Jamie Akhtar, CEO of CyberSmart said: “Having been in stealth mode since 2017,through both GCHQ’s Cyber Accelerator and CyLon, we’re excited to be able to scale our operations and start talking about how we’re helping to protect our nation’s most promising businesses from cyber threats. This funding will enable us to achieve scale, within our home market and invest in enhanced technical capability.”

The fundraise was led by specialist deep-tech VC, IQ Capital. The firm recently raised a $300m fund to continue deploying capital to deep-tech and AI startups, offering unrivalled knowledge and solid strategic advice to its portfolio companies

Kerry Baldwin, Partner at IQ Capital said: “CyberSmart is a superb example of the types of companies that IQ Capital invests in - deep tech startups with the potential for global scale. Cybersecurity is now at the top of the agenda at board-level for all data-rich businesses, however, few have proactive strategies in place to tackle the issue. CyberSmart is backed by the Government to help and certify businesses, and we are excited to be part of their growth journey.”

Commenting on the platform, Sally Blake, Marketing Director at Legal Edge said: “CyberSmart was recommended by our own clients who use the platform. They speak our language and are in tune with the requirements of SMEs. Their platform and processes were clearly explained and easily navigated and their responsive platform enables us to communicate and track our compliance activity. The team are extremely helpful, friendly and knowledgeable supporting you at every step of the journey.”

Founded in 2017 by Jamie Akhtar and Mariella Thanner, CyberSmart was selected, after a rigorous competition, to take part in the first GCHQ accelerator programme. From this, the companies were able to have access to government tenders and work with GCHQ's international network of partners.

CyberSmart has a bold mission to protect and empower SMEs. In order to do so, we need to provide continuous compliance through the entire organisation. This is no small feat, as today's organisations have diverse systems and modern ways of working. We are extremely excited to announce the next big step in our journey is now live.

A mobile world

The world has gone mobile, and SMEs are more than ever, relying on their mobile phones and tablets to do business. After all, they are pocket-sized computers, connected to fast mobile networks, with all the applications we need to be productive. The smartphone has allowed us to get the most out of these devices including handling and storing sensitive data, processing payments and communicating with others.

The ability to carry such devices in our pockets is driving growth and efficiency on a scale not seen before, allowing SMEs to do business, anywhere, everywhere. But like any internet connected device, this is leaving users open to mobile security threats.

Every device. Every user. Everywhere.

CyberSmart Active Protect is already protecting thousands of devices for hundreds of organisations in the UK, and now that protection and assurance can be deployed on mobile devices. Our new mobile application brings the best of our desktop app to every device in your organisation, securing every user, wherever they are, so your business can focus on what it does best, with peace of mind.

CyberSmart Active Protect

Active Protect checks mobile devices are configured to the recommended security practices, as per the requirements of Cyber Essentials. It guides users on how to protect the device and themselves. It also supports policy distribution to make sure users comply with their company's internal policies. As it’s an app instead of a profile, it supports both user-managed and corporate provided devices.

Why does my organisation need the mobile app?

• Ensure all devices within the organisation are checked for compliance with Cyber Essentials, preventing potential cyber threats such as mobile spyware and malware.
• Guides users through remediation if they need to address any issues.
• Real-time information feeds back into the CyberSmart dashboard for a single view of compliance.
• Allows users to read and agree on policies on their mobile devices.

What’s next?

The launch of Active Protect is just another step, albeit a very exciting one, in the CyberSmart journey towards our mission. Our team is focusing on rolling out many more advancements across our product range. This includes inspiring and educating SMEs on practices and strategies to combat cyber threats and further simplifying cybersecurity and compliance for organisations.

CyberSmart Active Protect is live in the following stores:

Cyber Essentials has become the fastest-growing information security standard in the world. So there's no doubt the scheme has been successful. However, the future of Cyber Essentials is uncertain, and this is putting the cybersecurity of UK businesses at risk.

As a member of the first cohort of GCHQ cyber accelerator, the London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement (LORCA), working closely with NCSC and DCMS, and presenter at CYBERUK, we have had the unparalleled opportunity to draw insights from key stakeholders. After discussions with stakeholders from businesses, industry and government, one thing is clear - there is substantial confusion in the sector. We are in a position to shed light on the challenges and bring clarity to a sector that is shaken and riddled with uncertainty. 

It’s important we consider the feedback of all stakeholders so that we can move forward in a concerted effort to ensure the future security of our nation. All stakeholders share the same vision, but with several conflicting perspectives, there is a lack of agreement to how we get there. As it stands, the scheme and it’s success so far is at risk. This uncertainty has led to underinvestment from the sector and confusion amongst the very organisations needing to be assured. 

If the foundation isn’t put in place for the scheme, much of the progress will be lost or at worse, reversed. If the right decisions are made, for the right reasons, then the scheme can achieve a level of success beyond anyone's expectations.

In order to make those decisions, clarity of information and a source of truth is required. Here are the key characteristics that will underline the scheme’s future success.

Scalable

Most information security standards are inherently unscalable - they require physical audits, extensive documentation and manual processes. Cyber Essentials set out to address this with self-attestation at the basic level. This allowed the scheme to scale in its initial phase but it’s still not ready for mass adoption. At the current take-up rate, it will take centuries to secure all the businesses that exist within the UK. A delivery chain is needed for the vast and diverse range of organisations within the country. In particular, current certification bodies and the thousands of managed service providers need to be engaged in order to deliver the assurance scheme to all that need it. 

Affordable

Cyber Essentials at its basic level needs to be at a cost that every organisation can afford. That includes the costs of assessing, implementing, certifying and maintaining the standard on an on-going basis. The vast majority of SMEs do not have the ability to implement and maintain the scheme or have the resources to hire dedicated security professionals to assist. There’s also a huge skills shortage of professionals that are best utilised for ensuring the assurance of critical data and infrastructure.

Accessible

The confusion, fear, uncertainty, doubt within the industry means security and compliance are often overwhelming for more organisations. The NCSC website, cohesive guidance and clear language have helped organisations understand what is needed to implement a baseline level of security. The issue remains, it doesn’t help them to implement this. Through the lowering of the technical expertise required to implement and maintain Cyber Essentials, it brings it within reach of many organisations previously inaccessible. 

Consistent

For any scheme to succeed, it must be consistent. Any Cyber Essentials certification should be equal to another. There should be a single standard from an authoritative source, and this should be as objective as possible. The challenge is ensuring consistency across the diverse range of approaches to managing information technology that exists. This includes the micro and small business which don’t have an IT team, those that have third-party managed IT, and larger organisations with dedicated IT professionals.

Data-driven

In order to deliver assurance at this level of scale, we need to use digital systems and data. This brings with it the challenges of managing such data and the requirement for Security by Design and assured technology. However, this also provides real-time insights into the adoption, implementation, maintenance and effectiveness of controls. Data brings us closer to the truth and allows us to ensure the scheme is meeting its aims and adapting to the ever-changing landscape.

Assured

The effectiveness of the current scheme is driven by the focus on ensuring appropriate levels of assurance from a small yet comprehensive control set. With the majority of attacks originating from basic factors not being properly implemented or maintained. The assurance is only provided if continuous compliance is in place. In order to this, it needs to be easier to maintain than to fall out of compliance. 

The future of Cyber Essentials

Fast forward to 2025, after a concerted effort, the UK is now the world leader in cybersecurity. The country is the safest place to live and do business online. This was achieved by making assurance programs accessible, affordable and scalable. It has been brought to a level that everyone can attain with confidence that there is consistency. Data drives the on-going development of the schemes as they respond to the changing environment. Other countries look towards the UK as a model of how an adaptable scheme can defend and assure a nation.

Looking to improve your cybersecurity but not sure where to begin? Start by getting certified in Cyber Essentials, the UK government scheme that covers all the fundamentals of cyber hygiene.

GDPR compliance became a legal requirement in May 2018 and was put in place to bring transparency and homogenise data privacy laws for citizens in the European Union. The regulation holds organisations responsible for data breaches and imposes heavy fines on them if they are found guilty of poor security measures. The UK Data Privacy Act of 2018 makes GDPR a legal requirement for all businesses.

This higher degree of accountability means organisations need to take action and strengthen their security and protection for personal data. Cyber Essentials is a simple, government-backed scheme that will help businesses, whatever their size, to protect their data against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks.

In this article, we explain how Cyber Essentials can help you on your path towards full GDPR compliance.  

Why would achieving Cyber Essentials help?

Cyber Essentials, a UK government-backed scheme administered through the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC). The scheme provides five basic controls to help organisations protect themselves against common cyber attacks. The NCSC claims Cyber Essentials can help eliminate the risk of 80% of cyber attacks.

The aim of Cyber Essentials is to provide a baseline standard for businesses to safeguard sensitive data, which aligns to the primary concerns addressed by both the European Union regulations and the UK law. The regulation of GDPR in the UK and the notification of all data breaches is delivered via the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The technical controls of Cyber Essentials help you demonstrate to the ICO that you are on the right path towards GDPR compliance.

It is important to note that Cyber Essentials does not ensure total compliance with GDPR, as GDPR is a comprehensive regulation that requires businesses to safeguard personal data. All organisations that handle personal information of EU citizens must comply with the GDPR. Achieving a Cyber Essentials certification is a big initial step towards GDPR compliance. However, businesses still need to take further action after this. See our blog post on GDPR certification.

How can CyberSmart help?

CyberSmart is an automated compliance service that helps organisations become compliant with standards such as Cyber Essentials and GDPR. We provide ongoing compliance, helping businesses protect themselves against emerging cyber threats.

As a certified provider, CyberSmart guides and assists organisations in achieving various standards of compliance. We recognise flaws in your existing security policies and recommend best practices.

Our well-tested process ensures you meet the security requirements of these standards. We take away the stress of understanding and evaluating the requirements of each standard from you.

Conclusion

Cyber Essentials is a great first step towards GDPR compliance. However, it is just one step of the journey. Organisations need to adopt a cybersecurity solution that can scale and adapt according to their growing needs.

Data protection obligations got you in a muddle? Get on top of them quickly and easily with the CyberSmart Privacy Toolbox.

Over the last few years, cyber attacks have become an imminent danger for businesses. With this growing threat, cybersecurity is now a responsibility rather than a luxury.

Despite this, most SMEs are at risk of being breached either through a lack of awareness or the lack of action. This is a concern for SMEs since the fines and costs associated with cyber attacks can put them out of business.

A KPMG survey suggests that only 23% of small businesses prioritise cybersecurity as a top concern. This is being said even though 60% of small businesses have experienced a cyber breach that led to brand damage and loss of clients.

As an SME, this is the right time to act and move forward with the cybersecurity agenda. The UK Government is helping these businesses by providing a range of standards and guidelines. The most useful of these perhaps is Cyber Essentials, particularly for small businesses.

In this blog post, we highlight benefits of Cyber Essentials for SMEs.

What is Cyber Essentials?

Cyber Essentials is a scheme backed by the UK government that was launched in 2014. The standard provides simple but effective guidelines that protect organisations against cyber attacks.

The primary aim of this scheme is to encourage and guide organisations to adopt the best practices in their information security strategy. Once fully implemented, Cyber Essentials will provide organisations with basic protection against the most prevalent cyber threats.

Even though it is not the silver bullet to cybersecurity, it is the first step in the right direction for SMEs to protect themselves in this age of cyber warfare.

Benefits of Cyber Essentials for SMEs

There are a number of benefits that SMEs can look forward to when getting certified for Cyber Essentials. Here are four reasons why Cyber Essentials is important for SMEs.

1.      It helps protect against common cyber attacks

A majority of cyber attacks exploit basic weaknesses in organisations such as the lack of updated software or well-configured firewalls. Often, these types of attacks are simple to defend against with straightforward strategies and Cyber Essentials provides those.

While there is no security strategy that will stop a hundred per cent of the attacks, Cyber Essentials helps organisations mitigate the risks of the most likely ones by providing a strong base for SMEs to work with.

2.      It prepares you for being GDPR compliant

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force earlier this year across the EU. As part of this regulation, organisations that are processing personal information of EU citizens need to protect this data against data theft and unauthorised access. If an organisation is found to be negligent to the GDPR in the event of a breach, the business could face fines of up to 4% of their global turnover.

Following the Cyber Essentials scheme can assist businesses in preventing these heavy fines and prepare them for compliance with GDPR. Even though the GDPR requires a lot more than the five controls in the Cyber Essentials scheme, the latter allow you to audit your internal security and fend off the basic security threats. It is the first step towards preparation of GDPR compliance for SMEs.

3.      It enables you to bid for government contracts

The UK Government has made it mandatory for suppliers to be compliant with the Cyber Essentials scheme to be eligible to bid for government contracts.

If a contract involves certain technical services or handling of sensitive information, then you need to be Cyber Essentials compliant. Therefore, for SMEs that are looking for a government contract, Cyber Essentials is the only way forward.

4.      It shows customers and vendors that you take cybersecurity seriously

Customers and even vendors can often be sceptical in dealing with you if you display little or no concern for cybersecurity. Becoming Cyber Essentials certified can help you establish the trust of clients and partners.

Once you are certified, you will be able to display a Cyber Essentials badge on your business website. This badge proves to customers, vendors, and investors that you take the security of systems and integrity of data seriously. This is particularly important if you are storing, processing, or transferring personal information or hosting sensitive data.

Conclusion

SMEs are as likely, if not more, as large organisations to be at risk of a cyber attack. An important step that SMEs can take to improve their cybersecurity is to get Cyber Essentials certified. This has a number of benefits including protection against prevalent cyberattacks and a competitive advantage for bidding on government contracts.

CyberSmart partners with SMEs to advise them on how to become compliant with leading schemes and standards such as Cyber Essentials. If you would like to learn we can help you become Cyber Essentials certified or Cyber Essentials in general, get in touch.

Following on from our last blog post, “Steps to prepare and pass Cyber Essentials” this post builds on that advice and discuses the time it takes to achieve certification.

Cyber Essentials scheme encourages businesses to adopt best practices to protect themselves against common security threats. With time, the variety and complexity of these cyber threats are increasing, consequently, cybersecurity standards such as such as Cyber Essentials are constantly evolving their requirements.

This is the reason most standards and schemes have a validity period for their certification. Cyber Essentials is reviewed annually and the UK Government recommends that all certificate holders must review their certification annually to remain on the official register of certified businesses.

In this blog post, we discuss the validity period for Cyber Essentials and how the recertification process works.

How much time does it take to get your business certified?

When you apply for Cyber Essentials, and following payment of £300 plus VAT (at the time of publication), you will receive a self-assessment questionnaire. You have up to 6 months to submit the questionnaire to the certifying body for review and a decision on your certification. If you fail to submit your self-assessment questionnaire within this period, your application will be cancelled, and you will have to make the payment again.

On average, we have found that it takes small businesses around 2 weeks to complete their assessment.

Following submission, it usually takes on average 3 days for the certification body to give you a response. If everything is in order, they will award you your Cyber Essentials certification.

In the case of Cyber Essentials Plus, the process takes a little longer and will typically involve an additional on-site audit and a system vulnerability scan from a registered competent contractor.

Depending on the time and size of your business, it can take up to 6 months to receive a Cyber Essentials Plus certification.

How long is your certification valid for?

There is no definitive period of validity for a Cyber Essentials certification. But, the UK government recommends that businesses renew their certification annually. If you fail to renew your certification within a year, you will be removed from the list of certified organisations.

Cybersecurity is continuously evolving with new requirements and best practices being established every day. To keep your business protected, it is important you stay updated with these new developments. Re-certifying helps demonstrate to your clients that you are improving your security to counter newer threats.

Your accreditation body should inform you by email around a month before you are expected to re-certify. When you receive this email, it is a good time to start preparing for the re-certification process.

How long does will it take to re-certify?

The recertification process is almost the same as the certification process.

Therefore, time durations are similar and you should receive your updated certification within 3 days of you submitting your assessment.

You should factor in the personal time and investment to re-enter all the original information from your previous applications to the recertification questionnaire as the sequence and content do change annually to reflect the changing security environment and requirements for cybersecurity.

In case of changes to the security infrastructure of your organisation, your answers should reflect the changes. If there are no changes, then you can copy and paste the answers from the questionnaire that you filled the previous year.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that you and your business need to re-certify annually to retain your accredited Cyber Essentials registration. The scheme’s current certified businesses are registered on a publicly accessible register, so there is no hiding if you have not completed your annual recertification.

The benefits of getting re-certified include improved protection against emerging cyber threats and reduced risk to your business through an annual review of your adherence to compliance standards.

CyberSmart is an automated compliance service that helps businesses seamlessly track and renew their Cyber Essentials certification. In our next post, we will look at how CyberSmart has been proven to speed up the process for you and your business, saving valuable time, effort and potentially cost. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you remain protected and compliant, get in touch with us right away.

Whether it be personal or operational, stolen data often results in disaster for small businesses. It can result in loss of revenue, customer trust, and reputation for the business. Data breaches are a growing concern for UK businesses, particularly the ones that are scaling to expand their operations.

Implementing security measures at a small-scale is easy, but as your business grows, it becomes more difficult and complex implement efficiently. In this blog post, we provide some effective tips on how businesses can secure their customer data as they scale.

Encrypt your data

One way to increase the security of your confidential data is to store and transmit it in an encrypted format. This keeps your data secure even if hackers get access to it. The encryption renders the information unreadable and hence unusable by the hackers.

Encryption is a great prevention technique that solidifies your organisation's defences against hackers. There are numerous encryption techniques and standards that can be used to protect your data. Consult with your service provider or security expert on which one you can use to ensure data confidentiality.  

Disable remote access

Most data breaches can be attributed to hackers gaining remote access to the network. To protect your business against this, it is recommended that you limit remote access to your network.

This can be achieved by disabling remote access from all external networks. Or, a possible way of limiting remote access is to whitelist devices that can remotely access your network. The remote access should be disabled for all other devices other than these.

Limit data accessibility

Access control or limiting data accessibility is an effective way to secure control data. It limits users within your network to access only the data that they need for their job.

Regardless of how well-known or trusted an individual is, their access to information should be restricted. For third-parties such as clients, you should create guest users that can only access the information that you wish to share with them.

There are several benefits of using access control. Firstly, it helps you to hold users accountable in the case data is illegally manipulated. Secondly, it allows for damage control in the case hackers breach your network and gain access to a user account. The hackers will only be able to access the information which the breached account can.

Educate your employees

Employees are integral to an organisation’s information security plan. Hackers can breach even the most advanced cybersecurity defences because of a simple mistake by an employee. For instance, you might have a strong password policy but if hackers can still manipulate employees to give away their passwords.

To prevent this, it is important to educate your employees. This can be done by implementing an information security policy and conducting training sessions. The information security policy should provide best practises and guidelines for employees. For instance, it should require employees to not share their personal information with anyone.

In the case of a breach, your information security policy should provide guidelines on what employees should do. New employees should be made aware of the information security policy and how to comply with it through training sessions.

Conclusion

It is essential for businesses, particularly SMEs that are growing, to secure their customer data. A breach can result in severe financial loss and irreparable reputation damage. Fortunately, you can take some measures to protect your information as your business expands. You can encrypt your data, limit remote access and data access, educate your employees, and monitor data for insider attacks.

CyberSmart partners with businesses to help them protect themselves from 80% of attacks. We provide automated compliance services that ensure businesses follow best practises for security. Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to learn more about how to secure your customer data.

Cyber attacks have grown significantly in number over the years. Among these attacks, small businesses and startups are the most common targets. Factors such as the lack of access control or absence of an information security policy make businesses vulnerable to breaches.

It has become essential for SMEs to remain vigilant. As a business owner, you need precautionary steps to protect yourself against cyber attacks.

In this article, we guide you on how you can protect your business from cyber attacks, free of cost.

Develop a strong information security policy

The first step towards protecting your company from cyber attacks is to develop a strong security policy. Such a policy should consist of rules and guidelines that cover all aspects of the company’s cybersecurity. It is not important to just create an information security policy, but to enforce it as well.

In the 2016 cyber security intelligence index, IBM found that 60% of their cyber breaches involved employees. Even though most of these had wrong intentions, more than one-fourth of these incidents happened mistakenly, when the employees opened spam pop-ups, emails, or links.

This is the reason it is important to make sure that employees are aware of the information security policy. Documenting a formal security policy with detailed guidelines is the best way to keep your employees aware.

For instance, a clause found in most security policies is to make sure that strong passwords are used. For making the employees aware, you can document and pass out requirements such as passwords should be a minimum of 8 characters in length with special characters.

Similarly, a strong information security policy should have rules to minimise risk from the use of personal email, public Wi-Fi, third-party software, and external URLs and links.

Make use of encryption

All data that is saved on a company’s server or the cloud should be encrypted. The encryption of data ensures that even if data is breached, it cannot be used for malicious purposes.

Basically, encryption converts the data into an unreadable format until a specific key is provided to access the data. You can use a software or hire a third-party vendor for this purpose.

Businesses store confidential information about employees and customers such as their credit card information and national insurance number.

It is essential that you protect this information from getting breached in the first place. However, as a fail-safe, encryption should be used to prevent hackers from accessing the information.

Control access to restricted information

A simple rule of thumb for businesses should be: all information should not be available to everyone. This is because it makes your business more vulnerable. The more accessible your information, the higher the number of possible entry points for the hackers.

Sensitive data such as employee or customer information should be accessible by certain people only. This is known as access control. With access control, there are fewer chances of access by an unauthorised person.

This is an important step for securing your company from cyber attacks. You can implement access control by simply defining user roles and establishing user types within the system.

Once access control has been implemented, you should conduct a session to inform employees about compliance with the rules. For instance, you should tell them what kind of access is unauthorised, and who is allowed access to what data.

Update software and operating systems

A common entry point for hackers is by making use of known exploits in software and operating systems. Therefore, the developers of such software provide regular updates and patches to fix known exploits.

Cybersecurity is not concerned with the use of high-end premium software, but rather how updated your software is. It is best practice to always keep your software and operating systems updated. Schedule your systems to auto-update whenever a security patch or update comes out to minimise vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

With cybercrimes on the rise, businesses are now in an urgency to protect themselves. You can improve your business’ cybersecurity by following the strategies that we have outlined above.

Even if you cannot spend considerably on cybersecurity, these free ways will help you protect your business from cyber attacks.

CyberSmart knows the importance of protecting yourself against breaches. If you are looking for more information on the strategies above, or would like to learn about how to protect, contact us to get in touch with a professional from our team. We will help you strengthen your defenses without having to empty your wallet.