How To Enhance Online Safety With Cyber Hygiene

The way you take care of your IT environment has a direct impact on its security. This applies to your personal computers and devices as well as those you use for business purposes. Carelessness or indifference in the way you treat these resources can leave you and your organization susceptible to threat actors and cybercriminals.

Cyber hygiene is the term commonly used to describe the practice of protecting online computer information using special software, strong passwords, and other cybersecurity best practices. The goal is to secure digital systems, devices, and data from cyber threats. Cyber hygiene includes both personal and organizational policies and procedures designed to protect computing resources and online activity.

Implementing effective cyber hygiene requires a comprehensive and methodical approach that addresses the security of all aspects of an IT environment. Cyber hygiene involves implementing security best practices to reduce the risk of cyberattacks, data breaches, and other malicious activities.

Best Practices for Robust Cyber Hygiene

The following best practices should be strongly considered to advance cyber hygiene throughout an organization. While each one provides a degree of cybersecurity, leveraging multiple best practices furnishes enhanced complementary protection.

Inventory the IT environment

Identify and inventory every device and application in the environment that can present hackers with an attack surface. It is essential to understand where your high-value data resides and which systems run business-critical applications. This knowledge allows you to provide them with the level of protection they need. Multi-cloud infrastructures may pose challenges to gaining a full understanding of an organization’s IT resources.

Update systems regularly

Maintaining updated systems is one of the most effective steps that can be taken to improve cyber hygiene. Vendors release patches and updates to address security vulnerabilities and add features to hardware, software, and middleware components. Threat actors often prey on outdated systems with known vulnerabilities when searching for easy targets for data exfiltration or embedding malware.

Implement a comprehensive backup strategy

Backups are an essential part of a good cyber hygiene strategy. Every organization needs to implement a viable and well-tested backup and recovery solution to protect itself from a wide variety of data loss scenarios. Cloud-based backup offerings enable companies of any size to protect their data without expensive infrastructure costs. Backups are also critical in maintaining compliance with regulatory data protection standards.

Enforce strong identity and access management (IAM) policies

Insist all application and account access requires strong and complex passwords. Access to high-value and sensitive data should be tightly controlled and only authorized to address business requirements. Multi-factor authentication should be implemented wherever possible to minimize the risks associated with compromised login credentials.

Deploy firewalls, endpoint protection, and antivirus software

Firewalls, antivirus software, and endpoint protection act as a first line of defense to keep intruders out of the infrastructure. The move to a mobile workforce has complicated this issue by requiring new approaches that incorporate endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. Mobile workers need to ensure their systems are secure and do not present easy targets for threat actors or introduce malware into the environment.

Encrypt all sensitive and valuable data

High-value and sensitive data should be encrypted at rest and in transit. The purpose of encryption is to render the information useless to anyone who cannot decrypt it. Decryption should only be permitted by personnel with compelling business justification and be done in a controlled environment. Policies should be in place to restrict the transmission of unencrypted sensitive data outside the organization.

Secure WiFi networks with strong and unique passwords

All networks including WiFi should require a password for access. Ideally, access should be linked to the IAM solution and not rely on static passwords that may be compromised. Network segmentation should be considered to segregate sensitive information and minimize the risks of unauthorized access.

Emphasize cybersecurity awareness training

Training and knowledge are essential in understanding the cyber threat landscape and the best practices that help an organization stay safe. Employees need to remain updated on new types of phishing and social media attacks that threaten data resources.

Develop an incident response plan

Organizations need to have plans in place that can quickly be implemented to address security incidents. The plans should focus on recovering business-critical systems and high-value data in the event of an unexpected outage or data loss scenario. Key personnel and their roles need to be identified and documented before an incident occurs. It is vitally important to test the plan and make any necessary modifications to it as the environment evolves.

How an XDR Solution Promotes Good Cyber Hygiene

Unfortunately, the best efforts at cyber hygiene may not be enough to keep malicious entities from gaining entry to your network and systems. An unfortunate mistake can result in compromised credentials that allow an intruder into the environment. A successful phishing attack may embed destructive malware that searches for high-value targets and engages in data exfiltration.

Adding an XDR solution to an existing cybersecurity stack enhances your cyber hygiene in several ways.

• Samurai XDR’s detection engine provides enhanced threat awareness by leveraging the capabilities of NTT’s Tier 1 internet backbone to provide a unique perspective on new and emerging threats. The IP backbone furnishes visibility on over 25% of global internet traffic and offers security teams insight into the evolving threat landscape.
• The XDR platform uses advanced analytics and machine learning to identify and respond to anomalous behavior throughout the environment that may indicate the presence of threat actors. Security personnel can promptly address these issues and perform sophisticated threat hunting to address risks before they can damage the environment.
• XDR consolidates threat information in a unified interface to enhance security and streamline threat management. This feature enables threats to be managed by a small team without dedicating excessive technical resources that may be needed in other areas of IT support.
• The platform can identify subtle lateral movements throughout the environment that are often associated with advanced persistent threats (APTs). Teams can address these threats before they have a chance to disrupt operations or exfiltrate data.

Take advantage of our new Starter Plan and see how XDR improves cyber hygiene and protects your organization’s most valuable assets.