One task that will certainly not cease to be important during 2019 – along with that of setting up a business in a legally compliant fashion to begin with – is that of optimising your organisation’s cyber security practices. A strong cyber security culture, continually focused on plugging weaknesses, will help to shield your firm against the ever-present risk of attack.

Here, then, are just some of the moves you may make to bolster your company’s cyber security this year.

Develop strategies for home and mobile working

A separate mobile working policy is vital, as is your staff’s adherence to the policy which you can help to ensure through appropriate training. A secure baseline build should also be applied to all devices, and data protected both in transit and at rest.

Invest in user education and awareness

User security policies should be produced, and a staff training programme instituted, to leave your employees in no doubt about what constitutes acceptable and secure use of your organisation’s systems. Steps should also be taken to keep users aware of the latest cyber risks.

Prepare your organisation to responsibly manage incidents

An incident response and disaster recoverability capability is imperative, with your preparation to  include the production and testing of incident management plans. Your firm’s incident management team should receive specialist training, and any criminal incidents must be reported to the authorities.

Establish an information risk management regime

As we would hope is the case for any other risks your company faces, we would advise you to establish an effective governance structure and determine your risk appetite. Your firm’s board should remain engaged with cyber risk, with supporting information also being produced on risk management policies.

Manage user privileges

These can include the establishment of account management processes and restricting the number of privileged accounts, as well as limiting user privileges and monitoring user activity. You may also wish to control access to activity and audit logs.

Institute effective monitoring

The establishment of a monitoring strategy and the production of supporting policies could be invaluable for your firm’s peace of mind, alongside the continuous monitoring of all ICT systems and networks. You should also analyse logs for any unusual activity that could suggest an ongoing attack.

Maintain secure configuration across your ICT systems

You should go beyond the mere application of security patches every now and then, taking steps to ensure security in every aspect of how your firm’s ICT systems are configured. A system inventory could also be created, and a baseline build defined for all of your organisation’s ICT systems.

Protect against malware

Do you routinely scan for malware across your company, produce relevant policy and maintain anti-malware defences that are relevant to every area of the business? If not, these should be other key cyber security priorities for your firm.

Pay close attention to network security

Any responsible organisation must also take every possible measure to guard their networks against internal and external attack. The network perimeter will need to be managed, and unauthorised access and malicious content filtered out. Finally, security controls must also be monitored and tested.

Are you seeking out the services that would assist you in setting up a business and all of the other essential elements of back-office compliance and governance in 2019? If so, don’t hesitate to contact London Registrars, so that you can soon free up greater time and resources to focus on your core business.

 

March 2019