How to Protect Your Company’s Financial Infrastructure from Cyber Crimes

If you are in business, you are likely in it to make money and not to lose money. With technology constantly evolving creates a constant target on the back of your business from potential hackers. Therefore you want to take any and all necessary precautions in order to protect your company’s financial infrastructure and proprietary information from potential cyber-crimes. Utilizing data encryption tools and establishing firewalls are both effective lines of defenses against cyber-attacks. However, many additional security steps must be taken in order to keep a financial infrastructure healthy.

How Cyber Attackers Operate

Hackers are not like most criminals. Most criminals get caught because they did something very stupid and are often acting out of some form of desperation. Hackers treat their trade like an actual job.

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They work and they work hard to do what it is they do. This makes them especially dangerous to any business that has a computer. It is commonplace for cyber criminals to capitalize on any opportunity to launch a criminal campaign.

For example, many cyber attackers are building their attack strategy in stages using a combination of different available exploits to fraudulently obtain and/or divert payments from businesses. The worst part is, most businesses will never know what hits them until it is too late. In some cases, businesses may never know they have been hit with a cyber-crime. Make no mistake.

Hackers are very good at what they do and your business could be their next target if you are not careful and have the proper precautions and security in place.

The Importance of IT

If you have a dreams of becoming a successful business, whether it be on the state, national, or international level, then you need to consider having an IT staff on hand. IT often does a lot more than just fix computer problems. This is especially necessary if you have a company that works primarily off of a computer system.

An IT staff can help keep your computer systems and company severs more secure from potential hackers and the threat of cyber-crimes. It is always good to have people that work for you that know about how to protect your company from the threat of cyber-crimes on your side, especially if you yourself are not the most tech savvy.

What Are the Advantages of Building a Layered Security System?

The best security system that any business can have to protect themselves against cyber-crimes is by having a layered security system. Layered security systems make it far more difficult for potential hackers. Sometimes if your security is layered enough, the hacker will get bored with trying to go after your business. Most of the time they are looking for easy scores, not something that is going to ultimately cost them more in the long run.

Building a security system in tiers with the aid of professionals that have a master’s degree in information security will allow a company to assess, develop, and implement solutions to minimize or contain security attacks. The following systems and tools are designed to keep a company’s financial infrastructure and proprietary information more secure.

Intrusion Detection Systems

It is always nice to know when someone is trying to invade your home. Wouldn’t it be nice to know when someone is trying to invade your business? Wouldn’t it be even nicer to know when someone is trying to invade your company servers? Intrusion detection systems are security products that identify internal and external security organization intrusions which enable timely responses to a cyber-attack and increase the potential to contain and limit the impact of an attack.

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This can also throw the hacker out of your system as well as block them out. Intrusion detection system software should be a must have for any and all business owners out there. You would protect your home with an intrusion security system, so make sure you do the same for your business and your company servers.

Network Behavior Anomaly Detection Tools

Network behavior anomaly detection tools, or NBAD, work as a type of supplemental network security in addition to antivirus software, firewalls, and spyware-detection tools. They track critical network characteristics in real-time and create an alarm if an unusual event poses as a possible threat, such as unusually high bandwidth usage or a sudden spike in website traffic.

Security Information and Event Management Systems

Your company’s proprietary information is what makes your business successful. It is what give you the edge over your competitors. Therefore you want to keep it secret and keep it safe from anyone who might want to steal that information from your business. SIEM tools typically provide live monitoring, correlation of events, alerts, long-term storage, analysis, and log data reporting from multiple security applications and devices.

These tools are well-suited for small/medium companies and are effective at detecting incidents and streamlining compliance reporting, and improving the efficiency of incident handling activities.

Configuration Management Tool

A configuration management tool works very similar to a black box on an airplane. Its main function is to provide a detailed recording of system or network configuration data, such as versions and updates applied to installed software packages and the locations and network addresses of hardware devices. Moreover, it can detect any unexpected or unauthorized configuration edits or compliance anomalies and pinpoint potential security threats through periodic configuration scans.

The practice of cyber hygiene can no longer lie solely on the IT department. Businesses should continually review and improve their data governance’s policies and processes, update software, operating systems, and applications, as well as limit and manage those who have administrative privileges to change, bypass, or override configured security settings. Computer systems are constantly being tested by hackers and anti-viruses and other security software is constantly going out of date and it is continually evolving. Make sure your company does the same to keep your financial infrastructure and other proprietary information safe from cyber crimes. Additionally, detection tools and related processes must be frequently upgraded to remain effective against present and evolving threats.