Top 10 cybersecurity best practices: Secure your organization’s data

In 2024, having a robust cybersecurity program is as important — or more — than locking your home, car or office doors. However, with so many options for protecting your networks and data, it can be difficult to figure out the best strategy for you or your organization. But you can use these 10 cybersecurity best practices as your personal or business data protection checklist. This breakdown of 10 essential cybersecurity best practices clarifies what you should do and why it can be effective. 

1. Conduct regular security assessments 

By conducting regular security assessments, you can identify vulnerabilities in your networks and devices. This is essential because you can use this information to develop a security plan to stop attackers from taking advantage of each weak spot. 

Understanding how to conduct regular assessments also helps prepare you for cybersecurity certifications, including pinpointing and addressing vulnerabilities. From a career perspective, being adept at figuring out where attackers may try to access your digital assets is a valuable skill because it enables you to help an organization stay a step ahead of hackers. 

How frequently should you conduct these assessments? Once every 3 to 6 months is a good starting point for analyzing how hackers may try to access your applications. 

2. Implement strong password policies 

Strong passwords for apps and devices are like combination locks on safes: In most situations, they are your first line of defense against data thieves and other attackers. Like locks on safes, though, they are most effective when everyone is using the safe and making sure they keep the safe secure at all times. That’s why it’s crucial to implement secure password protocols for your entire organization, including: 

• Requiring employees to use a password manager

• Create and generate longer passwords, even requiring employees to have a minimum length to all passwords they use

• Protect your company from breached passwords that criminals have already figured out. Many password management platforms create alerts when passwords saved in your account match with passwords found in data breaches. A company’s IT department may be able to standardize this process

• Use salting and hashing. Salting is when you add extra info to passwords, and hashing is turning a plain password into code

• Don’t use password hints because they can make it easier for attackers to figure out your password. And if you must use password hints on certain platforms, remind your employees to avoid online polls and quizzes involving personal details – hackers frequently start these threads and then go back to harvest possible password hints from the replies!

• Don’t change your password frequently if it will lead to frustration and creating an easy-to-guess password. Better yet, use a password manager and allow it to create a complex password using randomized numbers, letters, and symbols

• Limit the number of attempts allowed to enter a password, which can prevent hackers from executing brute-force attacks 

3. Utilize multi-factor authentication (MFA) 

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) involves using something you know, such as a password, something you have, like a phone or tablet, and/or something you are, such as a biometric element like a fingerprint. By incorporating two or more of these elements, you make it far more difficult for a hacker to access an account, an app, or a device because it’s unlikely that they’ll have access to the necessary credentials.  

While some canny hackers are finding inventive ways to circumvent MFA, moving your organization to Multi-Factor Authentication procedure across the board can prevent the majority of hacks connected to stolen passwords. 

4. Keep software and systems updated 

Updates and patches are essential because they give you more secure versions of applications, those that manufacturers have released after they’ve addressed vulnerabilities. A quick patch or update can make the difference between an attack, leading to expensive down-time, and smooth sailing. 

For example, in the Equifax breach, a hacker figured out that the company was running an unpatched version of the Apache Struts software on its server that was facing the internet. Sadly, the vulnerability had been discovered and addressed two months prior. So, if Equifax had simply implemented a free patch, the breach may never have happened. 

5. Employ firewalls and network security tools 

Firewalls protect your network by monitoring the traffic that goes in and out of them, preventing suspicious data from moving through your system. Other network security protocols and tools can identify malicious traffic, monitor networks for suspicious activity, and execute mitigation strategies to automatically prevent damage from attacks. 

These tools play a critical role in a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy because they give you automated protection that runs 24/7/365 without needing intervention. You can also configure the settings of firewalls and other network security tools to address specific threats and improve accessibility and throughput across your systems. 

6. Develop and test a disaster recovery plan 

Disaster recovery (DR) strategies are an essential thread in your cybersecurity fabric because they help you maintain continuity in the wake of a disaster or breach. For example, some companies have redundant applications that they can access via the cloud if their on-premises solution fails or gets hacked. In this case, if an organization constantly backs up application data to a cloud instance, its teams will experience minimal downtime in the event of a breach. 

Having disaster recovery expertise is also helpful when pursuing certifications and cybersecurity careers because knowing how to maintain continuity gives you a reliable fail-safe if your systems get compromised. Certification exams often have questions regarding disaster recovery, and for organizations of all sizes, job candidates with DR experience have a skill that’s worth its weight in gold! 

7. Provide regular security awareness training 

When you train your employees regarding cybersecurity threats and how to mitigate them, you transform them from potential victims to soldiers on your front line of defense. You also give yourself a human threat monitoring system once they understand what threats look like and who to report them to. To strengthen your security awareness training, you can incorporate: 

• Micro-learning, which involves covering a single topic in 20 minutes or less 

• In-the-moment training, where an employee encounters a phishing simulation with a safe, simulated version of threat, while their response (either reporting the unsafe link or document or clicking it) is logged and can be used to drive future training 

• Role-based learning, which focuses on teaching people how to deal with the threats they’re most likely to encounter in their specific, day-to-day activities 

8. Use VPNs for secure connections 

A virtual private network (VPN) creates a secure tunnel through which data can travel by encrypting traffic that moves through it. As the data enters the VPN, it gets encrypted and stays encrypted until it exits the other side. In this way, if a hacker were to intercept one or more data packets, they wouldn’t be able to understand their contents. 

From a cybersecurity perspective, VPNs give you a safer way to connect with remote employees and enable on-premises workers access to remote systems, such as those in the cloud. For example, you can provide remote and hybrid workers with access to a VPN that they can use to work within your network while outside of the office. If an attacker were to try to intercept data before it enters your network, they would only get a confusing mix of characters. 

9. Conduct penetration testing 

Penetration testing is an effective way of identifying a network’s vulnerabilities because it can reveal soft spots in your cyber defenses that may otherwise go unnoticed. For example, you may have a firewall that can’t detect the most recent threats; a penetration tester armed with the right malware can uncover this vulnerability.  

Penetration testing skills can be extremely valuable for your cybersecurity career because they enable you to double-check the effectiveness of an organization’s security system. Having an internal employee skilled in penetration testing is crucial because it prevents a company from having to hire an external pen tester and speeds up the process of beginning a pen test. 

10. Monitor networks for suspicious activity 

Continuous monitoring is important because it gives you a constant stream of data regarding the health of your network and the nature of the attacks it encounters. You can use this data to adjust your cybersecurity tools and configurations, thereby shrinking your attack surface. 

Several certifications, such as the AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty and CompTIA Network+, cover network monitoring. There is also no shortage of network monitoring software that can check your network’s performance, availability, traffic, and security status. 

Role of cybersecurity certifications and training 

Cybersecurity certifications and the training programs that help you prepare for them are often viewed by hiring managers as significant bonuses because they validate your knowledge of the job roles’ best practices. Instead of merely claiming that you understand how to protect networks and data, holding a certification serves as objective proof of your abilities. 

For instance, you can use Infosec’s “How to do application security right” learning path to learn how to hack your own computer to reveal vulnerabilities. You can also check out the top penetration testing certifications to find the one that best fits your career goals. If you’re interested in becoming an analyst who leverages network monitoring tools, you can investigate getting your CySA+ certification. 

Regardless of the nature of your network, all employees should understand the basics of cybersecurity, such as how to avoid phishing, how to use multi-factor authentication, engaging the company’s VPN, and understand the dangers of malware and ransomware attacks. 

Use these time-tested best practices to strengthen your security 

The 10 best practices include: 

• Conducting regular security assessments 

• Implementing strong policies 

• Using MFA 

• Keeping your software and systems updated 

• Using firewall and network security tools 

• Leveraging disaster recovery plans 

• Providing regular security awareness training 

• Using VPNs 

• Conducting penetration testing 

• Monitoring network for suspicious activity 

Each of these strategies involves taking a proactive approach to cybersecurity, which is essential for reducing attack risk. To protect your network and the assets connected to it, it’s best to stay informed and commit to continuously improving your cybersecurity measures.