4 Ways to Prevent Cyber Vulnerabilities in Industries

The adoption of these technologies in industries has offered the industries many advantages. However, one problem that still haunts the adoption of technologies in industries is cyber-attacks. A cyber-attack entails using computing devices to gain unauthorized access to a computer system.

Cyber terrorists gain unauthorized access to systems for various reasons. Their intention can be:

• Data theft
• Data alteration
• Data deletion

Cyber-attacks have prevented industries from reaping all benefits of technology.

Industries need to implement measures that prevent or reduce the possibility of cyber-attacks. In this article, we discuss some preventive measures that prevent cyber vulnerabilities in companies.

1. OT Asset Management

   When protecting your industry from cyber vulnerabilities, the first step to take is the identification of your assets. In industries, your assets include the devices or machines in use, systems installed on the computing devices, and data.

   Identification of assets helps an industry know where they should implement cyber vulnerability prevention methods. After identifying your assets, you should put in place protective measures for each of them.

   For devices or machines, you can put in place several cyber vulnerability prevention methods. The most important prevention method is installing secure operating systems. After installing a secure operating system, you should ensure that the operating system stays up to date. This entails installing the necessary patches or system updates.

   Another prevention method for devices is the recording of device logs. Device logs detail every action or process that the device has done. Device logs assist system administrators in tracking and evaluating each function performed by the device.

   System log files can help identify any cyber-attack attempts. After that, the cybersecurity expert can put in place the essential vulnerability prevention measures.

   Protecting the systems installed on computing devices entails the implementation of administrator passwords. The passwords prevent any alterations. This ensures that the system cannot be tampered with by just anyone.

   Data protection is the most vital for most industries. This can be done using 2-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized data access and authorization. Implementing data access privileges for employees can also help to increase data security.

   For large-scale industries, identifying assets and managing them can be a difficult task due to their size. The best way to protect your physical assets in a large-scale setting is to get services from trusted OT security vendors. They manage the security of various assets for industries and make sure they are secured.

2. Staff Training

   A recent study stated that 90% of all cyber-attacks embraced the use of social engineering tactics. Social engineering entails using psychological knowledge of the human thinking process to manipulate people into giving out confidential data through deception or willingly.

   This discovery shows that industry employees are the best defense against cyber-attacks. It is therefore vital to train your staff on how to ensure they do not fall prey to social engineering.

   The training should include how they should identify fraudulent emails and links. Fraudulent links use phishing to fool someone into thinking that they are logging in to an official site. The fake website then sends the login information to the creator of the phishing link.

   Another thing that should be included in staff training is the creation of passwords. Most people reuse passwords. Reusing passwords creates a cyber security vulnerability. When one of their passwords is acquired, and they have reused the password, this means that all sites or systems protected by the passwords can now be accessed easily.

   The final aspect to train your employees on is the security protocols for the industry. Security protocols detail how data and systems should be used and handled to ensure that their security is not compromised.

   For staff training, it is vital to remember that cyber terrorists often change their attack methods. Staff training should therefore not be a one-off thing but rather a continuous process that updates them on the attack methods in use and how to avoid falling prey to them.

3. Multi-factor Authentication

   Authentication is the confirmation of an identity claim when logging into or using a system. As stated above, most people reuse passwords. Multi-factor authentication should be enabled for all computing devices and systems in the industry to mitigate the vulnerability created.

   Multi-factor authentication entails the use of two of the three identity authentication data. Authentication is done by providing data such as:

   1. A phrase or keyword that one knows, for example, passwords and pins.
   2. Who one is, i.e. their biological data for example retina scans, fingerprint scans, etc.
   3. Something one has, for example, an access card.

   In multi-factor authentication, one can be prompted to input their password. If the password is correct, the system prompts one for a fingerprint scan to validate the identity claim. The use of multifactor authentication has greatly prevented cyber vulnerabilities for industries that have adopted it.

4. Defensive Computing

   In every computing system, how the system is used can either pose a security vulnerability or help secure the system. Defensive computing improves computer security by using the system in a manner that prevents creating security vulnerabilities by using unsafe computing practices.

   Defensive computing is a security practice that entails numerous categories such as email security, network security, passwords, etc. To ensure optimum prevention against vulnerabilities, your employees should be made aware of the categories that they should focus on.

   In the data and system security protocols for the industry, the vital defensive computing categories should be highlighted. This gives the industry’s employees an area to focus on and improve their computing security practices. For the learning of every industry employee, it is advisable to give every employee access to a defensive computing checklist that they should refer to.

Conclusion

Due to the rapid changing of methods used by cyber terrorists, the cyber security methods you have implemented must evolve to adapt to the new attack methods. This is a task that can be done by analyzing the industry’s cyber security documentation by comparing it to the new attack methods.

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