9 Ways To Improve Cybersecurity Accountability

In today’s times, IT professionals can’t keep up with the rapidly growing number of security updates coming out for systems, or at least not easily. Additionally, they have to deal with several compliance mandates, which have been put in place by various agencies.

Cybersecurity accountability is crucial to preventing data breaches and protecting customers from cybercrime. When companies don’t take accountability seriously, they open themselves up to lawsuits and potential fines.

Here are nine ways you can improve cybersecurity accountability at your company:

1. Conduct a Risk Assessment

This is an evaluation of the current security measures and how well they protect you against threats. It highlights areas for improvement and helps the management figure out what’s already working well and where resources should go.

2. Use Privileged Access Management Software

The use of privileged access management software is one way to increase accountability in cyber security. And, you might be wondering, “What is privileged access management and why is it needed?”

Well, privileged access management (more of which you can see on this article) enables companies to limit the number of people that have elevated privileges, as well as easily download large files or erase data. It also provides a record of who accessed privileged data, when they did it, and what actions were taken. This makes it easier to monitor the activities of personnel with special access rights.

This type of software can be used to limit and track privileged user activity within a network. It works by granting temporarily elevated privileges when necessary, without requiring the administrator to remember complex passwords or authenticate to separate systems.

3. Keep Track of Security Incidents

It’s important to keep track of every security incident as a business—whether it’s a data breach, malware infection, virus contamination, etc.—and document how you responded, what was affected, and the steps you took to resolve the situation. Then, make this information readily available to third parties, like customers and law enforcement.

4. Invest in Employee Security Awareness Training

An organization’s best line of defense is its employees, which means it should do everything within its power to ensure they’re taking the necessary steps to improve their security awareness. This can include conducting regular training sessions on emerging cybersecurity trends and how employees can protect themselves against modern-day cyber attackers. Regular awareness training sessions can improve employees’ understanding of how to identify phishing emails, helping them avoid getting tricked by attacks that use social engineering techniques.

5. Require Background Checks For Employees With Access To Sensitive Systems

You should already have a solution for privileged access management potential abuse, to make sure that the power of access that some individuals might have in your organization is appropriately checked and neutralized. But, in addition to that, it’s important that employees should undergo background checks before obtaining access to sensitive information or systems. This can help reduce insider threats by ensuring that only trusted individuals have physical or logical access to important resources.         

Organizations should also consider having a strategy in place on how they’ll respond if they suspect an employee has compromised systems and networks via unauthorized access, misuse of credentials, or malware infection.        

One way organizations can do this is through security incident and event management (SIEM) tools, which collect event data from network devices, operating systems, applications, security software, and other sources to provide information on what’s happening within the organization.

6. Limit Data Retention

Under certain laws, companies are required to keep all electronic records related to their business operations for a minimum of seven years. Organizations should implement retention policies that only retain the specific data needed for operational purposes instead of an indefinite amount of time. Sometimes, too much storage can be just as bad as not having enough because organizations risk storing sensitive data beyond its useful life, which can lead to additional security risks.               

An alternative option is implementing a hardware-based solution, such as removable or external hard drives, or USB flash drives, which provides organizations with portability and security. These devices can store large amounts of data, but are much less likely to fail than traditional hard drives.

7. Encrypt External Devices for Mobile Employees

External storage devices pose a huge security risk because they’re easily lost or stolen, which means that if they fall into the wrong hands, the data within them could be compromised as well. To help protect these devices, organizations should require employees to encrypt all external devices before connecting them to their network. This not only protects the sensitive information on the device itself, but also protects against malware that may attempt to steal data once connected to a workstation.

8. Implement Policies That Limit Administrative Privileges

Administrative privileges should be reserved for IT department staff only because employees who do not require access to sensitive systems and data should not have them. Organizations should also implement the principle of least privilege, which means that employees only have access to the resources and information they need for their respective roles. The fewer privileges an employee has, the less damage they can do in the event of a compromise.

9. Back Up Data Regularly

If data is lost or stolen, much of it can be restored by simply backing it up properly. This includes both physical and logical backup processes, where the former is made to removable storage devices, such as external hard drives or USB flash drives, while the latter is stored on a remote server. Both types of backups can come in handy when an incident occurs and organizations need to be able to restore files quickly.

However, the ability to restore data from a remote location is especially important for organizations with employees who are required to work remotely or when an incident occurs when employees are travelling.

Conclusion

By thinking outside the box and implementing innovative solutions, organizations can protect themselves against potential cyberattacks. This includes avoiding weak protocols and encrypting mobile devices, which help improve cybersecurity accountability.