10 Steps to Factory Cybersecurity

Businesses today are connected and smart, in this context cybersecurity comes first. Here's how to defend our company

Whoever invests in Industry 4.0 must have securing their company as their first objective. However, it is often not easy to understand which steps to take to achieve this result. Here are ten key steps to take to increase the cybersecurity of our enterprise.

One of the most important actions is to increase the defense of our internal networks. To accomplish this, we must limit the number of privileged accounts in our systems. We will also need to monitor the access of all employees to our Network, obviously using secure credentials and passwords. As a second key step in securing our enterprise we must test the capabilities and response times of our system in the event of an attack. This means having a professional in the company who is dedicated to securing our data and who takes care of training and updates.

Continuous monitoring of systems

Monitoring systems is then the third fundamental step to avoid falling victim to a hacker attack. We should take care of our internal network by analyzing unusual and suspicious activities. This will not only protect our security but also increase the efficiency of our company. Some problems related to the systems may not make the machinery work at its best. Also, as a fourth point, it is important to secure the devices used by employees. If, for example, they also work from home with smartphones, tablets or computers, it will be essential to enforce the company's security standards even while telecommuting. Otherwise, a hacker could target one employee's PC to attack the entire enterprise.

Beware of external contacts

With regard to computer attacks coming from external elements, it is necessary to pay great attention to the management of peripheral devices, such as hard disks or USB keys. We use special scanners to check if these devices are secure before using them on our machines. As a sixth key step, let's make sure that all the security patches of our applications and the machines we use in the company are up to date and do not have any warnings or notifications of potential danger.

Malware protection

As a seventh point, although it may seem obvious, we must install an antivirus and update it constantly. One program, however, cannot be enough to make our company secure. We aim, as an eighth step, to train employees. This will prevent us from falling victim to a phishing attack or encountering malware arrived via email attachment. As a ninth point to avoid external threats as much as possible we make our Network private and protect it with appropriate software. Finally, as tenth point we assiduously test our systems. Because security cannot be thought of as static. Viruses are constantly updated and so also our enterprise must have a protection able to adapt quickly to the changing times.