One of the biggest concerns for businesses today is cybersecurity. The need to protect company assets and keep business data safe has become a top priority. According to Cyber Security Ventures, the estimated global cost of cybercrime will increase to $6 Trillion by the end of 2021 leaving a lot of companies in serious losses. This raises a lot of concerns with a lot of companies and make them question themselves if they are prepared for the worst.

While the latest reforms due to COVID-19 has changed how businesses function, companies need to be prepared more than ever to tackle the threats or leaks that might come in their way.

So here’s how businesses can protect their data, prevent their misuse and strengthen their security strategy:

1. Review your security strategy

Review your existing security strategies to understand the workflow, preparedness and effectiveness. Ensure that your security policies and rules are in line with the current situation and operational practices. It is also a good idea to bring in an external security expert or a consultant to review the existing strategy and provide suggestions to tighten them for the current situation.

2. Examine third-party privacy policies

Every organisation has ties with external entities (vendors, third-party consultants, hosting providers, etc.) to function. It is always a good practice to review and examine their privacy policies and data governance methods to ensure your business data is handled in the right way.

This can be done by putting down a series of compliance and security questions or a questionnaire that can be sent to the third party to be answered.

3. Train your employees & vendors

Most of the times, the data breaches occur due to lack of being informed. While employees have access to sensitive data and information, they are not aware of the consequences at cases of breach or importance of keeping them safe and protected.

It is the job of any organization to keep its employees informed and educated on how the business data has to be protected. Doing this will not only help employees understand safety and security but also helps the organization to make security one layer stronger.

4. Review applications & software used

Using third-party applications cannot be completely eliminated. But controlled use and planned access control needs to be enabled for businesses to protect their data and business assets.

Using an access control software to monitor, manage and protect business data will go far when it comes to handling third party applications.

5. Establish controlled data access

Since the workforce has been working remotely after the COVID-19 lockdown, it has become very difficult for businesses to manage data access and control data flow within and outside the organisation.

This can be achieved by manually providing or segmenting users based on their role, department, functional hierarchy, etc. and providing access to all the assets, applications and files by defining the rule. This can be done through access control software like CACHATTO.

As many organizations have shifted to remote working model post-COVID-19, it becomes imperative for them to implement strategies and initiatives that will help in securing their data and applications. Implementing a scalable enterprise security software like CACHATTO for remote access control, protecting business data, application authentication, etc. can help businesses in taking a step further.