Why every CEO should understand the basics of cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is becoming crucial for both smaller and larger corporations. Security threats and cyber threats negatively impact many businesses. One of the biggest problems is that some CEOs do not take appropriate actions against cybersecurity issues and risks associated with them. Security breaches and data loss cause damage to a company’s reputation and can increase the risk of clients not trusting the company anymore.
It has become crucial for online business owners to take steps to secure their organizations. It’s not an option anymore to just be reactive. Being proactive is the best way to ensure that your company will stay safe. These are 5 things that every CEO should know regarding cybersecurity and the threats regarding them.
Cyber risk management
In this advanced world, every company relies on technology, which means there are more chances of cyberattacks. CEOs must know all the risks and damage that cybercriminals can cause to their business. It would be fundamentally wrong to say that the larger companies are completely safe from cyber attacks and smaller companies are not targeted. This is the reason that they need to hire the services of trusted cybersecurity provider like Sapphire.
According to cybersecurity statistics, cyber threats are more frequent than before. For example, hackers have attacked half of the small businesses in the United States in the last 12 months. So CEOs should take precautions to improve cyber risk management depending on the nature of their business. For example, if your employees use Chrome, you can get a high-quality VPN from the NordVPN Chrome store. It’s the easiest way to ensure that your company’s data will be secured.
They need to develop relevant contingency plans and correct preventive measures to protect their company from cybercriminals’ potential threats.
Implement data and system protection in a better way
It’s a big responsibility for a CEO to keep in touch with the data and IT team to understand what’s going on in the company and how. It’s unnecessary to have all the technical details, but one should be aware of the type of data they store, where and how it is stored, and at which level the data is encrypted and secure. There is a need to protect the system from malware to secure sensitive data.
Keep your IT team always prepared to take measures against cyber-attacks and update the systems whenever required because a security threat can enter your system, anytime.
Teach your employees about cybersecurity
Inform your employees about security threats and breaches, and then put them in a situation and see how they respond to these kinds of attacks. CEOs should train them to keep the company’s information private.
According to cybersecurity statistics, 60% of the data breaches occur due to former or current employees. For the safety of data, try to limit access to it and secure the information. It’s also recommended to change passwords regularly and make separate accounts for each employee.
Avoid reputational damage
Cybersecurity threats are becoming significant challenges for CEO and business owners. Cybercriminals are attacking corporations in a sophisticated way, and such data loss and breaches cause a tremendous impact on a company’s reputation. Security threats and cybercrime are increasing so fast that it is not only the IT team’s responsibility to handle such incidents, but leaders should also understand the risk and be with the team to plan a quick and effective recovery from these attacks.
Stay in touch with the cybersecurity issues
Lastly, a CEO must be aware of the latest issues related to cybersecurity because hackers are always discovering new ways to attack the systems and gain control over them. Therefore, the business owner should stay up-to-date on what’s going on in the cyber world. They should take recommendations from the professionals or hire an expert for their organization in the cybersecurity domain.
CEOs should form a strategy with experts and IT teams according to the latest trends and plan to stand against cybercriminals.
Summary
In today’s world, most business is done online, and cybersecurity threats have become an issue that needs to be sorted out. According to a survey, most CEOs simply are not aware of the cybersecurity threats and risks their company faces every day, and many are aware of them but do not take action or do what needs to be done.
Although there’s not any single and optimized solution for this problem, there are some steps that CEOs need to follow and ensure that their organizations are fully prepared to deal with such threats and challenges.
