7 Steps to Reduce Cyber Threats and Risks

How forward-thinking organizations are transitioning from reactive to proactive

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it,” Albert Einstein once said. Wise words, because let’s face it: when it comes to minimizing risks, being proactive is generally more advisable.

For many, the pandemic turned everything upside down, putting companies in reactive mode. It’s no wonder people and companies felt out of control. Pandemic stresses and the move to a sudden remote workforce left companies scrambling.

Lax cybersecurity protocols mixed with a high dose of cybercriminals proceeded to create more disruption. And the shift to telework has opened up a range of new online opportunities for personal and corporate data vulnerabilities. Learn more about how hackers are exploiting COVID for their gain in IDX’s recent research focused on online and data privacy threats due to COVID. In fact, the IDX Care team noted a 50% increase in the number of IDX members reporting being targeted by scams and phishing through emails, calls and texts.

No one expected the pandemic to have such a tremendous impact and lasting effect on businesses. Much like the recent winter weather ravaging the United States, whereby millions of homes were without power for days, both were impossible to predict.

Transitioning from Reactive to Proactive

“Most of the things that [scammers] could gain access to could absolutely make life miserable for you,” says Kelvin Coleman, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, in Forbes.

Moving from a reactive to a proactive posture is easier said than done, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. But, now that we are moving past the one-year mark of the pandemic, with a vast amount of people still working remotely and opportunistic cyber criminals, it’s time to iron out the kinks, fix what needs fixing, and start putting proactive efforts into place when we can — in an effort to regain some control in a topsy-turvy world. Here are seven steps to not only minimize risks but maximize positive outcomes:

1. Reign in your employees’ cybersecurity habits. “Employees can be almost as dangerous to a business's security as hackers and cybercriminals,” according to a recent ISACA study. Learn more about security hygiene tips and tricks for employees, in our on-demand webinar, Reduce Digital Threats for Employees Working from Home, or check out IDX’s Guide to Protecting Employees to help your employees reduce risks of digital threats and keep their privacy and identity safe. The Federal Trade Commission has good information about training employees about phishing scams.
2. Offer your employees privacy protection. A proactive benefit can help your employees get a handle on their privacy and help reduce risks to your organization. IDX Privacy empowers individuals to manage their digital privacy, with everything consumers need to address their most challenging privacy risks in one simple-to-use subscription software offering. Join us on April 1st for our webinar, Tax (Fraud) Season Is Here. Deep Dive on Scam Trends and How to Avoid It.
3. Cyber fitness. This is a peppy way of saying: boost your proactive cyber efforts! “To bring your cyber fitness up and become more resilient, “I recommend businesses start off by assuming they will definitely get breached this year, even if they’ve been lucky and have never been breached before. Once you accept that as your foundation, you can prepare for it. It’s that preparation that’s going to be key,” recommends Matt Seeley, senior solutions consultant at Carbonite + Webroot. One way of doing this is through continuous cyber education. For example, share cyber and privacy wellness tips with your employees, such as this resource: How Social Media Makes You a Target.
4. Personal VPNs. If you haven’t already, consider providing your employees with Virtual Privacy Networks (VPNs), to enable secure access to your organization's internal network and data, from anywhere. VPNs provide a secure tunnel between an individual's device and the service data center, encrypting the transmitted data. Learn more about Why You Need a VPN. Learn more about why your company needs a VPN usage policy. Try Safe WiFi included with the IDX Privacy protection plan to access the internet securely over public or private networks.
5. Cloud options. Remote working hinges on the cloud and a cloud-based approach will be central to businesses' remote and hybrid workplace models going forward. In fact, cloud usage is up because of the pandemic; 94% of organizations are using public cloud-based applications or infrastructure services. Gartner recommends that companies move these applications to the cloud: mobility, collaboration, video conferencing, virtual desktops, scale-out applications, disaster recovery, and business continuity workloads.
6. Protect your employees from America’s fastest-growing crime. Protect your employees from all types of identity theft with IDX Identity. This is a secure and adaptable solution that offers total identity and privacy monitoring, social media protection and dark web monitoring.
7. Talk to your employees. Sounds simple, but it’s effective. Communicate with your employees about job stress and how the pandemic is affecting work. Identify things that can cause stress and work together to identify solutions, advocates the CDC.

Enabling your employees with the right tools to protect their privacy will help reduce business security risks. That, combined with cyber-attacks and data breaches increasing, forward-thinking organizations are taking the time to establish proactive relationships with incident response partners. To help ready your company for today’s dynamic cyber threat landscape, IDX offers a no-cost MSA Priority Response solution. Pay only for breach services when you need them — contact us today to learn more. Being proactive can minimize risks, but it can also reduce stress and anxiety — and increase flexibility and positivity.