In 2016 former President of the United States Barack Obama passed the Cybersecurity National Action Plan that implemented near-term action and developed a longer-term strategy of bringing awareness and protections to public computing systems connected to the Internet. The strategy is to make an immediate effort to empower citizens to protect their own privacy, while also maintaining public safety and national and economic security, as many of the most critical systems this nation utilizes are networked on the web.

For the average small business, it is more crucial than ever to avoid the pitfalls that lay on the internet. Victims of cybercrime deal with an endless number of issues, including drops in revenue, data loss, downtime, and fines/restitution if they are unable to keep their networks secure. Below are a number of line-items that the Federal Bureau of Investigation recommends to keep your data secure, and to avoid becoming a victim of the most pressing malware on the Internet today: ransomware.

• Raise Awareness: Ensure that you make a point to make your staff cognizant of the threat of a ransomware infection.
• Updates and Patches: Make sure to patch your operating systems, software, and firmware on all of your digital assets.
• Auto Update Security Software: Lean on enterprise-level antivirus and anti-malware software to conduct regular scans and catch potential malware.
• Limit Super Users: Ensure that you don’t just hand out administrator access to your mission-critical systems. Managing access is one of the best ways to keep untrustworthy entities out of your network.
• Access Control: As stated above, access control is essential to ensure that you know who can and should be in parts of your network. If your users only need read-specific information, they don’t need write-access to files or directories, mitigating risk.
• Filters and Application Control: Deploy software restrictions to keep programs from executing from location where ransomware may be found. This includes temporary folders found to support Internet browsers and compression/decompression programs.
• Data Backup & Disaster Recovery Plan: Create data redundancy by having a comprehensive backup and recovery plan in place.
• Multiple Storages: Ensure that each storage unit is stand-alone to avoid major problems with backups and other forms of storage.

Governments absolutely have to have a strategic plan on how to deal with cybercrime, and as a solid practice, businesses should follow suit. If you want to make sure your strategies are top-level, visit https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber/news to see what the FBI is doing to protect their computing infrastructure. For more great security information, subscribe to our blog.