How to Prepare for Cyber Attacks

The potential for cyber-attacks is an ever-increasing concern. Daily, there are stories about organisations, both large and small being hit by cyber-attacks. It is no longer a matter of if you will be hit by a cyber-attack, but when.  

While you can’t prevent a cyber-attack from ever occurring, you can minimise the damage caused by being prepared for the potential impact it would cause your organisation. 

What are the types of cyber-attacks? 

• Spoofing – fraudsters pretend to be someone or something else to win a person’s trust. 
• Phishing – when attackers attempt to trick users into doing ‘the wrong thing’, such as clicking a bad link that will download malware, or direct them to a dodgy website 
• Spear Phishing – an email or electronic communications scam targeted towards a specific individual, organization or business) 
• Vishing – or Vocal Phishing is where an attacker uses the phone to steal personal, confidential information from victims. 
• Watering Hole – the attacker compromises a site likely to be visited by a particular target group, rather than attacking the target group directly 

With threats on the rise, how prepared are you? 

How to Respond 

• Enforce your information security policy 
• Classify data according to sensitivity 
• Encrypt sensitive data in transit/at rest 
• Manage the use of personal devices/Prevent 
• Require strong passwords/changing of passwords/two-factor authentication 
• Train employees to recognise suspicious activity 
• Departure from agreed protocol/instructions 
• Conduct Due Diligence on partners you rely on 
• Document your procedures and stick to them 
• Monitor adherence to procedures 

Summary

Being prepared for cyber-attacks is your best defence to protect yourself and your organisation to minimise damage caused by criminals who take advantage of these vulnerabilities. By frequently monitoring risks, as well as training staff, you can help to stop the attackers at the front line.  For more details on how CalQRisk can streamline cyber risk preparation, check out our website or request a free tailored demo in order to understand how the CalQRik software can benefit your organisation.