Cybersecurity Guide for SMEs

Cybersecurity is a reality that affects both individuals and organizations.

We move in digital environments both in our personal and professional spheres.

What are the most important data that your business stores? Where do you store this data? By answering these questions, you will become aware of the risks to which you are exposed. Put a stop to them! We help you to do so, in our guide to cybersecurity for SMEs.

What does cybersecurity mean?

A set of elements, measures and equipment designed to control the computer security of an entity or virtual space.

Ensuring the cybersecurity of information systems has become one of the main objectives of any organization. Cybersecurity and today’s technological risks and threats can cause significant losses and directly impact service quality or production downtime. These include:

• Viruses (malware)
• Intrusion attacks and persistent attacks (APTs)
• Computer fraud
• Information hijacking (Ransomware)

Guide to ensure cybersecurity in companies: steps to follow

1. Id. First we must identify what we want to protect. At the device level: equipment within my organization, mobile devices, cameras, sensors, printers, servers…? At the information level Where do I have my CRM, ERP… on-premise or in the cloud?
2. Protect: Once the elements or services to be protected have been identified, the solutions available on the market must be evaluated and tested to be convinced that they are the ones the organization needs. Patches, updates, firewall, EDR antivirus, two-factor authentication, DNS protection…
3. Detect: Once the protection solutions are implemented, establish an active monitoring service to interpret alerts and review logs, this service can also be performed by an external company.
4. Answer. In case of being attacked, how should we act? Have 24×7 contact with qualified professionals so that they can advise us in this type of situation.
5. Recover: No security layer is 100% secure, it can happen that the attacker is more cunning and our information is affected. You must have backups in the cloud to rebuild and recover our data in case of a cyberattack Are you prepared?
6. Train: Learn from the situations experienced, record each incident and how it was solved. Train all personnel of the organization to make them aware of vulnerabilities.

How to protect both inside and outside your organization

• Decide who will be responsible for managing IT security risks.

• Connect to your company securely through a virtual private network or VPN.

• Updates operating systems, software, firewares, etc. with periodic patches and updates.

• Protect your network against external and internal attacks. State-of-the-art FireWall. Restrict total internet access.

• Run antimalware (more than just antivirus) on every computer in the enterprise. It prevents breaches and blocks malware at the point of entry, then quickly detects, contains and remediates advanced threats that evade front-line defenses and enter your network.

• Controls removable items. Avoid the use of USB, SD cards or any type of flash memory. Only those provided by your organization’s IT department.

• Make sure employees only have access to the folders they need for their work.

• Use secure user names and passwords to control access to systems and equipment. Do not use shared users or passwords and do not allow passwords to be written down on paper.

• Ensure that employees notify the security manager of any unusual activity they detect.

Solutel recommends the following minimum solutions to implement in any company:

We recommend Solutel Security Pack as the minimum protection that any company should have.

With the Active Surveillance Service included, you will have the peace of mind that your security products are monitored to ensure they are working properly.

Two-Factor Authentication + Antivirus + DNS Layer Protection + Active Surveillance Service

From 10,50 eur per month/user

“Cybersecurity Experts Company ” Solutel

Essential security elements in a company

The powerful combination of firewalls, EndPoint security, cloud security solutions, and user authentication can help your company keep running by detecting threats earlier, faster, and easier. These solutions, together with user training on cybersecurity awareness and good practices, guarantee a more cybersecure company.

In our cybersecurity guide, we mention and develop the essential security technologies that work together to keep your employees safe and your company protected. These are preventive measures that help protect your company’s information, guarantee business continuity in the event of a cyberattack, and minimize risks:

• Next-generation firewalls block unauthorized access to your customers’ applications and data.
• Cisco Umbrella is the first line of defense against threats on the Internet.
• Cisco AMP for EndPoint prevents threats at the point of entry and provides continuous monitoring to capture and resolve threats.
• Duo’s multi-factor authentication verifies user identities and blocks obsolete, insecure, or unknown devices from accessing your customers’ applications.
• Choosing secure passwords.
• Restricting access to information. The fewer people who can access information, the less risk there is.
• Having a Back Up in the cloud. Make backups periodically.
• Training and awareness of the people in the organization.

Protection of your network – FIREWALL

Why do you need a firewall?

• Firewalls create a barrier between the trusted internal network and untrusted external networks, such as the Internet.
• They control access to your company’s resources.
• Firewalls help prevent the loss of business data.
• The best firewalls prevent the disruption of business-critical applications and services caused by security breaches.

Cisco Meraki MX

If you prefer a fully managed solution in the cloud, Meraki MX can be deployed remotely in minutes and gives you complete control over users, content, and applications on your network. Security settings can be easily synchronized using templates.

Cisco Firepower 1000 Series

The 1000 Series is a next-generation firewall designed for SMEs. It provides enterprise-grade protection for small and medium-sized offices, and is flexible enough to protect your business as it grows.

Thanks to Firepower 1000, you can gain control and visibility of applications, a next-generation intrusion prevention system, advanced malware protection, and URL filtering. It is easy to use and designed not to affect network performance (unlike other firewalls, which can slow down your company).

Protection of your employees’ devices – AMP for Terminals

Why do you need endpoint security?

• Laptops and mobiles are the most vulnerable endpoints in small businesses.
• As malware becomes more evasive, traditional antiviruses are insufficient to protect your terminals.
• Endpoint security helps you find threats quickly and check what’s been affected.
• Quickly stop the spread of threats and quickly remediate them.

Cisco AMP for Endpoints

Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) for Terminals prevents threats at the point of entry and then continuously tracks all files that are allowed access to your terminals, such as mobile devices, laptops, desktops, and many more. This allows you to detect the most advanced threats, including fileless malware and ransomware. In short, Cisco AMP allows us to:

Prevent: Automatically block known malware by leveraging the best global threat intelligence and enforce a zero-trust model by blocking risky endpoints from gaining access to applications.

Detect: Run complex queries and advanced investigations across all endpoints and continuously monitor all file activity to detect hidden malware.

Respond: Quickly contain the attack by isolating the infected endpoint and remediating the malware on PCs, Macs, Linux, servers, and mobile devices (Android and iOS).

Security for users wherever they are – CISCO UMBRELLA

Why do you need security at the DNS layer?

• By applying security in the DNS and IP layers, Umbrella blocks requests for malware, ransomware, phishing, and botnets before a connection is established.
• Monitoring DNS requests can be a simple way to reduce blind spots and provide greater accuracy and detection of systems at risk, which improves network protection.

Cisco Umbrella

Users work from many locations and devices. They no longer need a VPN to work: they use cloud applications, many of which have not been examined by the IT department. What if there was a quick and easy method to protect users and enforce acceptable use policies?

Cisco Umbrella helps protect your users both inside and outside the network by blocking malicious Internet destinations before a connection is established.

And because it’s delivered in the cloud, Umbrella is the easiest way to protect your users anywhere in minutes.

Protection of your passwords – CISCO DUO

Why do you need multi-factor authentication?

• 80% of security breaches are related to password theft.
• Verify user identity in seconds.
• Protect any application on any device.
• Apply secure access to your applications and data.

Cisco Duo

Cisco Duo verifies the identity of all users with strong two-factor authentication before granting access to your applications.

After verifying the identity of users, Duo verifies that your devices comply with the established security standards, to protect against vulnerable or at-risk terminals.

Duo is designed to offer a simple and optimized login to each user and in any application, and, being a cloud-based solution, it integrates easily with existing technology.

Harness the power of Talos threat intelligence

Talos is a Cisco threat intelligence and research team that leads the industry, and every Cisco security product is protected through Talos. Talos has more than 250 threat researchers working around the clock and around the world, with a repository of 100 terabytes of threat intelligence.

Talos security intelligence is the industry’s most powerful cyber threat protection.

• 19.7 billion threats blocked per day.
• 600 billion emails inspected per day.
• 1.5 million malware samples per day.

Talos Threat Intelligence

Talos tracks threats on terminals, networks, cloud environments, the Web, and email and offers a complete understanding of cyberthreats and solid and actionable intelligence.

“Cybersecurity Experts Company ” Solutel

Remember to ask us for free trials and evaluations!