Whether you are an established business, a small startup it is crucial to protect organizations themselves in cyberspace, particularly small startups know they need to” do something about cybersecurity” but many are unsure of where to start! This article is aimed at those with only a limited knowledge of cybersecurity and to help organizations protect themselves and achieve the best possible security in businesses today. Back then,  UK Government produced a strategy for cybersecurity as a part of a campaign to do safe business across the UK. However, now that these steps are followed by every country to secure their business.  This article helps you in exploring ten steps and principles to cybersecurity by the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) in an attempt to ease security issues. 

Here are the 10 steps of cybersecurity

• Risk management regime
• User education and awareness
• Removable media controls
• Incident management
• Malware prevention
• Managing user privileges
• Secure configuration
• Home and mobile working
• Monitoring
• Network security

Risk management regime

• A risk management regime is one of the primary steps involves in risk which an organization faces before implementing security measures and helps the organization to prioritize the biggest threats and ensure their responses are appropriate.
• This risk management regime should be implemented with the approval of board directors and they should communicate with all levels in the organization to ensure risk coverage.  
• A risk management regime also helps keep the board involved in your cybersecurity efforts and allows you to regulate your approach and permits them to prioritize threats. 

User education and awareness

• Professionals can take up Great Learning Cybersecurity training to enhance their skills and play an important role in your organization’s security practices.

Removable media controls Organizations should be aware of security threats from external services such as USBs and other removable devices, though these are not the sole ones responsible for injecting malware, however, the risk of losing removable devices or leaving them plugged into computers due to carelessness from the employee may help unauthorized parties to access them. Organizations should, therefore, Define control policies for all types of removable media which are used for the import and export of information. If using a USB or removable medic is unavoidable, scan them for malware. Also, bring out policies to control all the access to removable media and scan all media for malware before introducing it into the corporate system.

Incident management

• An organization can build robust defense measures, yet they experience a security issue at some point.
• So, the organization must be prepared for this by establishing policies and procedures to help relieve the damage and get you back up as quickly as possible.

Malware prevention

• Organizations can get infected by malware in many ways such as email attachments, worms through a vulnerability, or via a removable device.
• To ease these risks, organizations should implement anti-malware software and policies designed to assist and stop staff from falling victim.

Managing user privileges

• Organizations must stop giving unnecessary system privileges which can be misused. This prevents sensitive information from being exposed by employees.

Secure configuration Secure configuration simply means: 

• Systems are patched appropriately
• Anti-virus / anti-malware software is installed.

One of the most common causes of data breaches is an unsecured database with misconfigured controls. The importance of configuration will make sure that you remove or disable functionality from systems that are not necessary. 

Home and mobile working

• Now that COVID has enabled employees to work from home, this means organizations must learn security practices and try to implement them.
• Remote workers don’t get the same physical and network security that’s provided in the office, so organizations must respond accordingly and make sure to bring out new policies for limiting access to sensitive systems, safeguarding laptops, removable devices, outside the workplace.

Monitoring

• As we have seen earlier, organizations can be careful about the security issue, yet they face it, considering previous security incidents and attacks, developing a monitoring strategy, and supporting policies too.
• Monitor inbound and outbound network traffic for unauthorized or malicious trends which could be a sign of a cyberattack using Network Intrusion Detection Systems, Host Intrusion Detection Systems, and Prevention Systems.

Network security

• The network security issue is a crucial threat to the organization when not identified in the network, Keep in mind that connections from your networks to the Internet contain vulnerabilities that could be exposed, However, the organization won’t be able to eradicate all of those vulnerabilities, but you should be aware of them and remove as many risks as you can. And implement technical policies to reduce exploitation.

Wrapping up… With the increase in internet growth, most of them are going online, this article is intended for organizations to guard themselves against cyber-attack and tackle the threat of cybercrime and data breaches.