Cybersecurity in a nutshell

In wake of current crisis, there has been obsereved a significant increase in cyber-attacks. One may wonder about their reasons, but from historical perspective, such cyber-activites usually escalate when geo-politcal tensions are high and this time it isn’t any different. As a result, some alerts and warnings to organizations have been issued in order to boost their cyber defence and prevent further attacks from emerging. Hopefully, with our short walk-through of cyber security essentials, you will mitigate potential risks and keep a closer eye on your network vulnerabilities.

Here are a few key points you should pay special attention to. In particular, make sure that:

1. Monitored network devices are properly described and whether they are classified in terms of their importance for the organization and its business continuity.

2. In case of unavailability of critical and important equipment, notifications will be sent.

3. The critical load and important devices in the area of CPU, RAM, etc. are monitored.

4. If the performance parameters of the critical devices increase significantly, you will be notified of that.

5. User workstations are fully monitored.

6. Employees' devices, especially the ones designated for remote work, have the current version of the operational system and are protected by anti-virus software that is set to regular updates in order to increase chances of removing ever-evolving new types of viruses.

7. Employees' workstations are cryptographically secured against any unauthorized access.

8. Website blocking policy is applied, especially the one based on the authorized dangerous domain list.

9. Possibility of downloading files with specific extensions, e.g. bat, exe, ps1 or msi is blocked.

10. A password manager storing and encrypting all passwords is utilized.

11. When visiting websites a secure protocol is followed.

12. The use of removable devices is considerably limited and approved only if there is a valid business case for its use.

13. Popular cloud storage websites, eg. Google Drive, Dropbox, are blocked on company devices.

14. The use of company devices is GDPR compliant.

15. Remote desktop applications, eg. TeamViewer, AnyDesk, VNC, that allow for remote control of any computer in another location, are blocked.

16. Admin applications, eg. powershell.exe, wscript.exe, that are available on Windows stations are blocked.

17. The process of saving files on employees' workstations, especially to desktop, documents, and downloads folders, is audited on a regular basis.

     

We do hope that with the above recommendations, you will manage to keep your organization safe and thriving. And if you are on the lookout for software that will help you implement them, don’t forget to contact us at sales@axence.net.