Cybersecurity Checklist for Business - 13 Tips

This year in particular, we have experienced an increase in the number of customers who have fallen victim to cybercriminals. Due to Corona and the resulting sharp increase in work at home offices and homeschooling, hackers were presented with additional attack opportunities. So, unfortunately, it wasn’t surprising for us that more and more SMEs as well as schools were affected.

According to Statista, "The first weeks of 2021 saw a significant increase in the number of cyber incidents in Switzerland, with 319 cybercrime incidents reported to the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) in the 22nd calendar week (May 31 to June 06, 2021)." (Source in German.)

The actual number of cyberattacks could be higher, as not each enterprise reports cyberattacks.

The most common cyberattacks on companies in Switzerland in 2020 were data theft (68%) and remote code execution (67%). You can see the full statistics in German here.

From our own experience and various reports, we can state that Swiss SMEs are a popular target for hackers and the cyber risk continues to increase.

For this purpose, we have created a cybersecurity checklist that could be helpful as a "red thread" for companies, but also partly for schools:
 

1. Raising employee awareness of email phishing. How to recognize and prevent malicious emails.

2. Train all employees on cybersecurity rules at regular intervals.

3. Generation and retention of complex passwords. (www.pass-securium.ch/en)

4. Two- or multi-factor authentication for maximum protection. (AccessSecurium™)

5. Educate about software security and install software only from trusted sources.

6. Use services such as https://haveibeenpwned.com to check if passwords have been leaked to the Dark Web due to data breaches.

7. Test the knowledge of your employees. It is best to learn from mistakes. It's better for your employees to open a test email from the company itself and gain new knowledge about better protection than from a cybercriminal.

8. Educate your employees about safe Internet surfing.

9. Protect their digital devices from possible malware and viruses only with tested software.

10. Protect your data and communication with reliable software. Pay special attention to privacy protection. Ensure the protection of your data storage location and secure storage conditions of all your data and "end-to-end" encrypted communication. (SWISS SECURIUM®)

11. Educate your home office employees about secure remote working. (www.desk-securium.ch/en)

12.  Perform regular updates to eliminate possible gaps.

13. Create your own checklist taking into account the features of your company and find out where your weak points are.

For a better view, we have created our cybersecurity checklist in A4 format for you.

Do you have any questions? Then contact us at contact@alpeinsoft.ch. We will be happy to advise you on the subject of cybersecurity and find a tailored solution for you that ensures maximum protection.