Essential Cybersecurity Policies Every Business Should Have

In today’s digital world, safeguarding your business from cyber threats is as crucial as locking your doors at night.  As cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated, employing pre-designed attack packages rather than crafting their own, the volume and intensity of threats have surged dramatically. For businesses, this means a robust cybersecurity strategy is no longer optional—it’s essential.

Fortunately, establishing effective cybersecurity policies is not as daunting as it may seem. By following the guidance provided in this comprehensive overview, you can fortify your organization’s defenses and significantly reduce the risk of devastating cyber-attacks.

The Critical Role of Cybersecurity Policies

Cybersecurity policies are formal, documented procedures that describe your approach to safeguarding your digital assets and infrastructure, protecting them from threat actors. These policies concretely outline exactly what employees are expected to do when it comes to:

• Protecting sensitive information.
• How to use technology in a way that doesn’t introduce unnecessary vulnerabilities.
• Managing data in ways that minimize the chances of successful breaches.

Your cybersecurity policies are your first step in proactively defending your infrastructure and assets. With the right protocols in place, you can stop a wide range of threats, forcing hackers to shift their attention to other organizations. Without a strong cybersecurity policy, your business is left vulnerable to attacks that could lead to significant financial and reputational damage.

These policies safeguard your assets and prevent employees from accidentally making it easier for attackers to penetrate your system. They also make sure everyone on your team understands how to use tools that stop data thieves, as well as malware attacks that could cripple your digital infrastructure.

In many cases, there are also legal and regulatory implications if you don’t have adequate cybersecurity policies. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Stipulates that sensitive patient information must be encrypted while in storage. Otherwise, an organization could face stiff penalties. By having a cybersecurity policy that requires encryption in your storage infrastructure, you avoid the negative consequences of falling out of compliance.

Data Protection and Privacy Policy

A data protection and privacy policy refers to a document that describes how your company collects, processes, and stores data. In addition, your cybersecurity policy also outlines the tools and techniques you use to protect sensitive or personal data. In many organizations, the policy is guided by legal requirements that apply to your jurisdiction, which is often determined by the customers you serve. For example, any company that interacts with customers in the European Union has to incorporate principles from the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

In addition to outlining how your organization safeguards data, your policy also includes how you communicate what each employee is responsible for doing. For example, a policy may include periodic training sessions, as well as check-ins by administrators to evaluate how well employees are following your policies.

The Importance of Safeguarding Sensitive Data

The data customers and businesses entrust your organization with needs to be treated with care because it’s a valuable asset to those you interact with. Further, there can be legal and financial repercussions if your organization doesn’t take the right steps. For instance, if you don’t have proper data protections in place, and there is a breach, you may be held liable for damages customers suffer as hackers use their information for identity theft attacks.

From a corporate perspective, protecting proprietary business information, including confidential conversations and details of future product releases, is essential for maintaining a good reputation in your industry.

Your data protection and privacy policy should include:

• Data classification involves segmenting the data you collect according to categories. In this process, you specify the level of sensitivity and necessary protective measures, such as encryption, that apply to each data class.
• Access controls dictate who has the right to view and/or manipulate data. For instance, role-based access controls limit who can see certain kinds of data based on their job duties or titles.
• Data retention guidelines outline how long and for what reasons you can store data. For instance, according to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), it’s unlawful to store sensitive data simply for marketing purposes or to have it on hand for some unspecified future use.

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

An acceptable use policy (AUP) refers to rules that dictate how people in your organization’s community can use your IT resources. These may include:

• Internet access
• Intranet systems
• Telecommunications solutions, such as VoIP services

With a well-designed AUP, both internal employees and external contractors understand what they can and cannot do while using your organization’s resources. In this way, you both reduce the risk of your systems being misused and guard against a number of security issues.

What to Include in Your AUP

Your AUP should dictate the following:

• How to use company resources, such as laptops, software, and internal networks. For example, you may have a list of authorized software or rules against using your organization’s e-mail services for personal use.
• Guidelines around accessing the internet. For example, you may prohibit employees from accessing certain kinds of websites. Also, when they log in remotely, you may require them to use a private network as opposed to a public one at an airport or coffee shop, for example.
• Details of your bring your own device (BYOD) policy. Even though a BYOD policy can reduce your hardware expenditure, you want to use your policies to encourage safer connections. For example, if people bring their own laptops and use them to access your networks, you may require them to have a certain type of security software installed.

By setting clear expectations for employees and implementing good cyber hygiene practices, you can get everybody on the same page when it comes to the importance of protecting your infrastructure and data. At the same time, you also encourage a cybersecurity-aware culture.

Incident Response Policy

Your incident response policy outlines how to manage and mitigate security issues if and when they impact your organization. An effective incident response policy gives all those involved clear instructions regarding how to:

• Identify threats at various stages of the attack life cycle.
• Contain attacks before they can spread laterally through your network.
• Respond to security incidents by taking pre-designed steps or contacting the appropriate person in the IT department.
• Protect your most business-critical assets during an attack, such as company servers or computers used to run manufacturing processes.
• Maintain business continuity by restoring functionality as quickly as possible or using parallel or backup systems.
• Report incidents in line with regulatory requirements. For instance, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires non-banking financial institutions to report breaches within 30 days or less from discovering them.

By establishing a structured approach to handling incidents, you can contain them and prevent significant operational issues and financial damage. You can also reduce the time it takes you to recover from an attack.

For instance, suppose you have a cybersecurity policy that instructs employees to disconnect their computer from the network and unplug it as soon as they suspect a malware infection. If an attacker was planning to use access to an employee’s computer to execute a brute-force attack on a sensitive server, disconnecting the computer from the network could prevent the hacker from getting to their bounty.

Password Management Policy

A password management policy dictates how people in your organization should create and use their passwords. It also puts controls in place regarding how they should manage their passwords, including storing them securely while in the office and at home.

Since so many systems and software require passwords to gain access, having a cybersecurity policy in place can be a powerful first line of defense. Many attackers acquire long lists of cracked passwords and then use them to execute brute-force attacks. With this in mind, here are some best practices for password creation and management:

• Passwords should be complex, consisting of random characters or groups of words and phrases. They should also have a minimum number of characters and include numbers and punctuation or symbols.
• Employees should store passwords securely using apps that protect them with encryption. You should also warn against writing passwords down or storing them in unprotected applications on their mobile devices, such as notes or word processing apps.
• IT administrators and employees should frequently change passwords, which makes it more difficult for hackers with an outdated list of credentials to get inside your systems. The policy should also prevent reusing old passwords or simply adding the next number in a sequence to an existing password. For example, “shiftygumballWin!?1” shouldn’t simply be changed to “shiftygumballWin!?2”.

The Importance of Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is essential because it adds an additional layer of security. This can prevent an attacker who has successfully stolen username and password credentials from getting into a system.

For instance, if a hacker steals an employee’s laptop, and it automatically fills in their username and password as the hacker tries to access a web application, multi-factor authentication can still prevent them from getting inside. For example, if your MFA solution sends a code to the employee’s mobile phone, the hacker would have had to both steal the phone and unlock it to gain access to the web app.

Remote Work and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policy

Remote work has risen in popularity thanks to the convenience and cost savings it offers both employers and employees. At the same time, however, it poses significant cybersecurity risks, such as:

• Increased exposure to insecure networks. Remote workers may try to log into your applications or internal network via public Wi-Fi. A hacker can easily set up a fake Wi-Fi network and intercept your employees’ communications.
• Elevated risk of password compromise. Whether it’s a stolen phone or other device or someone eavesdropping while an employee enters their credentials, when people access your network outside of the workplace, they increase the risk of hackers finding a way in.
• Insecure personal devices. A BYOD policy paves the way for devices with inadequate cybersecurity protections, as well as easy-to-guess access credentials. If employees aren’t required to follow strict policies, each device they use can become an additional vulnerability.

You can reduce the chances of a breach stemming from BYOD or remote employees by using virtual private networks (VPNs). A VPN encrypts data as it enters and then decrypts it as it exits the other side, effectively creating a secure tunnel through which employee data travels.

By encrypting data while it’s on employee devices and servers used by your company, you also make it less likely for an attacker to steal sensitive information. Even if they’re able to access private data, they won’t be able to read it unless they have the decryption key.

Another effective measure to include in your cybersecurity policies is a set of device management controls.

Security Awareness and Training Policy

A comprehensive security awareness and training policy turns your employees from potential vulnerabilities to defenders of your network. By educating them about the various threats, how to deal with them, and cyber hygiene, you can drastically reduce the chances of a successful attack.

An effective training program should include:

• Regular training sessions, such as once every fiscal quarter.
• Ad hoc training whenever you make adjustments to your network or onboard new applications.
• Phishing and other attack simulations using penetration testing.
• Ongoing education is especially important as new attack methods creep up on the landscape.

It’s also crucial to have a security-first culture in your organization. This involves making sure all employees understand that security is a priority. At times, this may involve a level of sacrifice.

For example, security should be more important than convenience, especially when it comes to accessing applications and networks. Some employees may balk at having to receive an access code or provide a fingerprint scan before being allowed to use apps they need to do their work. But if you implement a security-first culture, they’ll gradually adjust to the new expectations.

Vendor Management and Third-Party Risk Policy

Even if you go to great lengths to protect your infrastructure, an attacker could still gain access using a vendor or another third party.

For example, you may share an employee contact list with an event management company that will send out invitations to your annual party. If that company doesn’t have the right data management policies in place, it could be easy for that information to end up in the wrong hands. This is why it’s essential to establish a vendor management and third-party risk policy.

An effective policy includes strict requirements around:

• Performing due diligence before agreeing to do business with any vendor that could have access to company or customer information.
• Conducting regular security assessments regarding how vendors store and manage the data they may get from your company.
• Including contractual obligations that require vendors to use data protection, such as encryption, when managing information you share with them.

There is no shortage of ways an attacker can use an external vendor to breach your system. For example, they could gain access to your vendor’s server and replace an executable file used to install their software with malware. Then, when you open the file, malware gets installed in your system.

To prevent these kinds of attacks, you can contractually obligate vendors to test and scan all documents and executable files they send to people in your organization.

Regular Policy Review and Update Protocol

Your cybersecurity policies are only effective if they can protect your organization from the most recent attack vectors. That is why it’s crucial to review and update your protocols frequently.

Here’s an example of what a review protocol might look like:

1. Check all anti-phishing instructions given to employees to see if they account for the most recent phishing methods.
2. Ensure all third-party risk mitigation strategies take into account new attack vectors or those rising in popularity.
3. Reiterate the importance of employees creating hard-to-guess, complex passwords and managing them effectively.
4. Review all contracts with third parties to ensure they have sufficiently strong language around what they’re required to do.
5. Check each employee’s list of approved devices in accordance with the company’s BYOD policy.
6. Have employees fill out forms declaring the antivirus tools they have installed on all devices that interface with the company network.
7. Run hypothetical attack scenarios to test the company’s incident response policy.
8. Simulate a breach to test the company’s attack mitigation strategies and resiliency.

Cybersecurity threats constantly change because attackers are always trying to come up with new ways to execute their assaults. Therefore, your cybersecurity policies need to be flexible and evolve.

For example, you may have policies in place for mitigating data exfiltration attacks, especially because these can be the first step in a ransomware attack sequence. But if ransomware attackers start using more distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to extort money, your IT team needs to know when and how to shut down your site or respond to alerts from your DDoS detection system.

Don’t Let Cyber Threats Compromise Your Business
Implementing comprehensive cybersecurity policies is essential for protecting your business from an ever-evolving threat landscape. By addressing data protection, acceptable use, incident response, password management, and other critical areas, you create a strong defense that reduces your vulnerability to attacks.

For businesses seeking to enhance their cybersecurity posture, partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) like TPx can provide expert guidance and support. Our team can help you develop and implement robust cybersecurity policies tailored to your specific needs, ensuring that your organization remains resilient against cyber threats. Contact us to get started.