How’s your cybersecurity? 3 steps to fostering a culture of superior cyber hygiene

Cybersecurity – protecting sensitive corporate and customer data from falling into the hands of criminals – is vital to your organization’s success.

Lately the feds have been cracking down on disruptive ransomware thieves and info sellers on the dark web, but don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security.

An optimum strategy for preventing expensive data compromise attacks is fostering a company culture of daily cybersecurity work habits by:

1. starting with your executive team setting the tone by always keeping data security top of mind when making corporate decisions. Once everyone in the C-suite is on the same page about cybersecurity, it’ll become a priority to put systems in place to educate all employees on cyber hygiene best practices.
2. acknowledging that annual cybersecurity training probably isn’t enough because of evolving threats. It might mean holding quarterly cybersecurity training, or something next-level like random phishing tests from your IT team. You’ll want to huddle up with IT to determine what’s most effective for your workforce.

Vendor cybersecurity risk?

And because supply chains in the post-pandemic world are especially vulnerable, it isn’t unreasonable to extend the same cybersecurity standards in establishing and maintaining your vendor relationships.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, almost half (45%) of all businesses worldwide will have experienced some kind of attack on their software supply chains. That’s too big of a risk to ignore because of how critical software vendors are to your company’s daily operations.

When you evaluate new software vendors, of course you ask about functionality, integrations and capabilities. But don’t forget to also ask questions about their cybersecurity protocols and data protection measures.

A great measuring stick is whether the vendor has American Institute of Certified Public Accountants SOC 2 certification. It means there’s been an assessment of a service provider’s internal controls and systems related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and data privacy to ensure there are adequate safeguards.

And vetting vendor cybersecurity and data protection practices is an ongoing process that should begin when your firm starts searching for a new provider and continues throughout the entire relationship. If a vendor ever requests access to additional data or information that you or your team members don’t feel is necessary for performing their services, don’t hesitate to ask questions until you’re absolutely sure you’re following sound cyber hygiene best practices.