Cyber Security Threats

Introduction to cyber security threats

The landscape of cyber threats is becoming more complex and dangerous by the day. Traditional cyber threats like viruses and malware seem almost tame next to advanced cyber hacking attacks like ransomware, impersonation fraud and spear-phishing.

The impact of cyber threats on businesses

Cyber threats can have a serious impact on businesses of all sizes, including financial and reputational damage. The impact can vary depending on the severity of the attack. There are, however, a few common consequences associated with a successful cyber attack:

• Financial loss – cyber attacks can cause serious financial damage to a business, e.g. through the theft of data, which was one of the original types of cyber attacks, that has evolved in size and sophistication; revenue loss due to downtime; and the costs associated with recovering from a cyber attack.
• Reputational damage – as a consequence of a successful cyber attack, customers and partners can quickly lose trust, especially if sensitive information such as customer or financial information is compromised in a data breach.
• Business operation disruption – cyber attacks can cause unpredictable downtime, leading to loss in productivity and revenue.
• Legal and regulatory issues – companies may face these issues, if they fail to protect sensitive data or comply with data protection regulations.

Mitigate cyber threats with a cyber resilience strategy

The landscape of cyber threats is becoming more complex and dangerous by the day. Traditional cyber threats like viruses and malware seem almost tame next to advanced cyber hacking attacks like ransomware, impersonation fraud and spear-phishing.

As companies consider how best to address cyber threats, cyber security firms are recommending strategies for cyber resilience. This approach to cyber security acknowledges that stopping every cyber security attack is unlikely, and instead focuses on ensuring business continuity and mitigating the impact of successful cyber threats.

Because most cyber threats begin with an email, the key to cyber resilience is having superior cyber solutions for email security and continuity. For companies seeking the most effective and cost-efficient cyber resilience solutions, Mimecast provides a comprehensive suite of cyber security software services.

Steps to protecting your business from cyber threats

1. Conducting a cybersecurity assessment to start with, can help you understand your current security posture, the threats your business faces, and prioritize areas that require your immediate attention or more focus.
2. Knowing who can access your systems and data is key – implementing strong access controls is crucial in order to prevent unauthorized access. This step could include introducing the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA), educating your employees about the importance of password hygiene and safe browsing habits, and assigning different user roles, making sure that employees have access only to information and systems they need to do their jobs.
3. Training your employees about cybersecurity best practices is a key element to protecting your business from cyber threats. More often than not, human error plays a role in successful cyber attacks, so it’s crucial for organizations to protect their weakest link in cybersecurity.

By prioritizing these steps, organizations can move closer to creating a strong cyber resilience strategy, and ultimately, reduce the risk of cyber threats and potential damage. While these steps are important, protecting your business against the ever-changing cyber threat landscape is an ongoing process.

Best practices for protecting against cyber threats

Some general best practices for protecting your business against cyber threats include:

• Backing up your data
• Securing your devices and network
• Encrypting data
• Using multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Enforcing strong password hygiene
• Utilizing employee awareness training
• Staying up-to-date on the latest cyber threats
• Developing a cyber resilience strategy

Addressing cyber threats with Mimecast

Mimecast's all-in-one subscription service provides powerful tools to stop cyber threats to email security while ensuring email availability and continuity. Built on a cloud architecture, Mimecast's SaaS-based services simplify email management and support a robust cyber resilience strategy.

With Mimecast, you can:

• Prevent cyber threats. Mimecast advanced security services use sophisticated threat intelligence and patented threat detection technology to prevent cyber threats from impacting business operations.
• Deliver continuous access to email. When primary email servers go down – due to an attack, a disaster, human error or technical failure – Mimecast continuity services ensure that users can continue to send and receive email and to access historic email and attachments.
• Keep email safe and available. Mimecast's multipurpose archive stores data from email, files and IM conversations in the cloud. By replicating email data, Mimecast ensures data integrity and speeds backup and recovery. And by making archiving easy, Mimecast simplifies compliance and e-discovery, as well as email search and retrieval.
• Empower end-users. Because employees are often the most vulnerable point in the security chain, Mimecast provides tools and training that help to improve cyber security awareness and make users more vigilant defenders against cyber threats.

Benefits of Mimecast solutions for stopping cyberthreats

When you rely on Mimecast to help thwart cyber threats and promote cyber resilience, you can:

• Reduce the cost of cyber resilience with a cloud-based service that lets you avoid purchasing and maintaining on-premise hardware and software.
• Eliminate the complexity of protecting and managing email with an all-in-one solution that can be managed from a single pane of glass.
• Boost productivity by ensuring continuous access to email, even during outages, disasters and cyber attacks.
• Stop cyber threats from impacting business operations.