An effective cybersecurity culture has many dimensions, but one of the most important is continuous monitoring. For all of us as users, being able to monitor our online presence for misuse is crucial. Unfortunately, it's easy to feel that your online presence is stretched thin, and that much of it is beyond your control. That's why it's helpful to keep an inventory of your website accounts, passwords, and email addresses.
Password managers such as KeePass and LastPass make this much easier, while also using encryption to keep the inventory confidential. You can also use email as a hub for all of your other account activity. Many websites and services have options to send email alerts when key account configurations change. The quicker you're informed about these changes, the quicker you can confirm—or deny—their validity and take appropriate action.
This can mean the difference between finding out immediately that a hacker has changed your online bank account password, and finding out when you next sign in—after a massive withdrawal.
It's not just end users who need to contribute to a strong cybersecurity culture—businesses have a lot of catching up to do as well. Just like with users, continuous monitoring is essential. Minding your data, whether in transit or at rest, is a proactive approach to security that is often sorely lacking in the enterprise world.
Many of the breaches that we've all heard about weren't noticed until months, or even years, after the breach actually happened. Attackers exfiltrated data off servers so long ago that it's hard to know exactly what was stolen. This is the last position you want your business to be in, and it's vital to have solutions, such as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), always keeping your cybersecurity personnel up to date on any suspicious activity right when it happens. After all, it's the people in your organization who spread and maintain your culture, not the automated machines and software. There's no better way to assure the growth and development of a strong culture of security than through training and certification. Taking a master class and earning a certification, such as the CyberSec First Responder: Threat Detection and Response credential offered by CertNexsus (Logical Operations), will prepare your team to face any threat.
Don't wait another week, or month, to start changing the culture around you. Take action today, whether it's pursuing a cert, upgrading security software and tools, or even just changing those long-dormant passwords. The more effort that each of us puts into creating a culture of cybersecurity, the brighter our shared digital future will be.
The usual perception of cybersecurity among the masses revolves around data breaches. However, most people fail to understand why such breaches occur in the first place. While all the netizens were furious during the Facebook data breach that affected almost 50,000,000 users, no one was willing to get to the root cause of such attacks. This knowledge gap acts as fodder on which cybercriminals breed. Therefore, it is imperative to bridge this gap in a holistic manner to thwart cybersecurity challenges.
In the next section, we will talk about the various certifications needed for cybersecurity professionals to hone their skills and stay ahead of bad actors.