Cybersecurity has become the talk of every person in the digital world. With rising data breach cases seen every day, one can only be as vigilant as possible to avoid them.

Data breaches have started to become more and more frequent with each passing year. Businesses and other organizations are at increased risk of a data breach and are increasingly concerned about the potential impacts on both their day-to-day and future operations.

Many organizations are trying to take as many steps as possible to protect themselves from cybersecurity risks. Possible security measures to take include opting for the best security services to something as simple as using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) as a means of protecting a business. Organizations that take cybersecurity seriously are not wrong to do so.

While there are plenty of cybersecurity tools that small and medium-sized businesses can adopt these days, one common tool that’s being widely used to protect employees from data breaches is a VPN. A good VPN service provides security features to help businesses protect their employees and business processes.

Some data breach statistics

Unfortunately, the personal data of millions of people has been released due to data breaches. 45% of these data breaches take place through hacking into devices, a massive number if you think about it. The remaining breaches occur due to malware (17%) and phishing (22%).

68% of entrepreneurs believe that data breaches are increasing. Cybersecurity workers also believe that this scenario is going to worsen with every passing year.

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5 cybersecurity skills you need to secure your business remotely

We all know about the shift from working in an office to working from home as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the concept of working from home can be quite productive and efficient, cyber attackers have taken advantage of the situation and have increased the number of security attacks.

Unfortunately, there was an increase in the number of data breaches reported in 2020, and the prediction is that there will be a further increase in 2021. According to Purplesec, ransomware attacks are estimated to cost 6 trillion dollars by the end of 2021.

Therefore, you need the right skill set to ensure the security of your business from home, otherwise, you leave it open or vulnerable to attack. Whether you’re a cybersecurity worker or not, it’s time you take cyber concerns into your own hands to protect yourself from future attacks.

Let’s look at the skills required to secure your business digitally:

1. Authoritativeness

The first thing to always remember is taking responsibility for what’s happening and how you can make the most appropriate steps if a data breach takes a toll on your business.

You need to inform all the management and staff about an attack as soon as something like this occurs. Your organization needs to be told to take the most appropriate steps and minimize the damage to the situation.

This skill is one of the most important ones as often the first reaction following a cyberattack is to ignore it or cover it up, and this is definitely something you need to avoid.

2. Analyzing vast amounts of data

Another skill you should have is being able to analyze large amounts of organizational data. Why? Because going through this data is the only significant way to analyze any strange occurrences before they actually take place.

It is known that advanced persistent threats (APTs) try to aim for the intellectual and strategic information of the business, stealing this instead of any minor data that they come across.

Your ability to know how to read this vast dataset will enable you to quickly understand what is happening within your business.

3. Management of risk

You need to know how to respond to an attack in case it happens. An effective prior plan goes into detail about how such an attack will be managed, both within and outside the organization. You need to protect yourself by developing a solid strategy or risk management plan to help your business whenever it’s under attack.

These strategic strategies usually have three steps. They are:

• Prevention: You should know how you can reduce the risks of an attack and how to prevent extensive damage.

• Resolution: You should know, if your business is under attack, what steps you can take to resolve the situation. List these steps, one by one, so that you do not panic about what to do first.

• Restitution: You need to know how to make up for these attacks' consequences and how you can build trust again.

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4. Management of the network security

It will help if you can devise an effective plan to manage the network security of your business in advance. For this, you need to curate effective policies that will help you to not lose a large amount of data and limit the effect of any attack to only a small part of the organization while working remotely.

These plans can include having separate small networks for all relevant departments of a business or organization. If an attack occurs in the HR network, only the HR department's data will be lost instead of having a data center and securing the entire business’s sensitive data there. In this case, the impact of an attack could be much more serious.

5. Soft skills

Your technical knowledge and skills should always be backed up with good soft skills that will help you during an attack. The ability to communicate will take you a long way, and you will be able to speak about the attack more effectively than anyone else.

Teamwork is also one significant skill. You need to collaborate to make anything possible and secure your data.

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Conclusion:

These are some basic skills you require if you’re trying to protect your business online while at home. Please be vigilant about this, as, with more and more data breaches, you’re at equal risk too. One effective way to encrypt your corporate network is by setting up a VPN.

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