Sure, you may think installing antivirus software on your computers is enough to protect them. There are so many antivirus providers to choose from, certainly one of them will do. You can even choose the level of protection they provide. Shouldn’t you be able to go with the gold standard of antivirus software and then wash your hands of the whole thing? Nope.
Thank ransomware for that. Antivirus programs are useful because they scan your dives and match up to known file types. However as ransomware and other forms of malware become ever more sophisticated, they become more unrecognizable to most antivirus scans and can wind up undetectable. Antivirus systems catch a lot of generic viruses, ransomware, and other malware hackers use to attack servers, but they don’t catch them all.
Businesses must invest in a multi-layer approach to cybersecurity if they want to remain completely safe from the bad guys. Look at it like bulletproof glass. While bulletproof glass is thicker than ordinary glass, it is composed of many layers of glass with film in between. Your cyber defenses should do the same.
In the end, companies must rely on a multi-pronged approach. The final layer of your bulletproof glass is education. As in most companies, the user is possibly the weakest link in the chain. In today’s ever-changing, fast-paced world, we’re always on call to respond to emails no matter what we are doing or what the time of day. When we are under this kind of pressure, that’s when links or malicious content are easily clicked.
The employees who have access to your internal networks must be made aware of the kinds of threats they face. Unfortunately, far too many users with sensitive access remain blissfully unaware of the risk their actions create. Consider what your response should be if you are using a simple antivirus software and it fails. Do you have a response team ready? Can they quickly and efficiently respond to the threat and mitigate the damage?
If you use a basic — or even enterprise-level — antivirus software, and everything else fails, make sure you have a business continuity solution in place. Think of it as a digital safety net. The best business continuity solutions will backup regularly to onsite and cloud-based backups. This ensures your business will continue running, even if your servers are unavailable, and will restore data after an attack — ensuring minimal downtime and in turn protecting your business and brand.
