How to Bolster Your Enterprise Software Against Cyber Threats

Andi Croft

August 21, 2023 - Guest Writer

Cyber Threats

Enterprise software is a powerful tool for large companies, making them a prime target for ne’er-do-wells who want to steal your data. To avoid that from happening, here are some practices that can help provide more protection for your enterprise software.

Regular software updates and patch management

Proper maintenance is one of the best ways to prevent cybersecurity threats from affecting your enterprise software. Appropriate software maintenance involves regularly updating your software and managing all software patches.

By regularly updating your enterprise software, you promptly address vulnerabilities or weaknesses identified that the developers have already discovered. Also, working with an in-house software support team for your enterprise software concerns can help significantly.

Regular software updates are usually about performance but often include security patches that fix known vulnerabilities and strengthen the software’s security. By applying these prompts with the updates, businesses can reduce exposures in their system.

Patch management, on the other hand, isn’t just installing the patches. It is also about identifying, testing, and deploying these patches across all relevant systems within your enterprise software.

Although a little different, it’s still about fixing the security lapses in their enterprise software.

Also, patching is vital for compliance as many regulations from legislative bodies are there to help the people that trust your company with their data and info.

These steps help close potential entry points for hackers, minimize the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access to sensitive information, and enhance overall system resilience against evolving threats.

All of these together are crucial in software maintenance so that you can ensure the security of your company data in your enterprise software.

Limit and control access to your data

How you handle your company’s data also has much to do with your enterprise software security levels. If you’re too open, sure, it’s easy to access for your staff, but it’s also easy for everyone else. That’s why it’s a good idea to limit and control the access to the data that you keep related to your enterprise software usage.

By implementing strict access controls to your software, you’ll know that only authorized individuals can access, let alone change anything about this restricted information. This stringency helps in reducing unauthorized access or data breaches.

If there is a breach, you can point to these limited individuals who have access so that it can narrow down your choices.

Limiting data access means granting permissions only to those employees who require it for their specific roles and responsibilities.

Part of controlling data access as a security measure involves various authentication mechanisms. These days, multi-factor authentication and encryption protocols are foundational security measures at this point. These measures make it harder for malicious actors to infiltrate enterprise software systems.

Encrypt and back up your data

Another two key strategies you should already use with your enterprise software would be data encryption and regular data backups.

Data encryption involves converting information into a code that someone can only access with an authorized decryption key.

Encrypting sensitive data is an added security layer that makes it difficult for any would-be attackers trying to attack your enterprise software. In the event of a cyber attack, encrypted data remains incomprehensible to these hackers. The more you delay them, the likelier it is for them to leave or for you to detect their presence and act accordingly.

Aside from encryption, don’t forget to back up your data.

Even when you have cloud storage, having a separate place to store your backups is a good idea. This step will make it easier for you to bounce back after data loss, whether through negligence or a cyber threat.

Manage systems and configurations

Excellent cyber hygiene is all about managing your operational systems and configurations to reduce your risks as much as possible.

Effectively managing operational systems involves often checking for the latest security patches and updates. You shouldn’t sit around and wait to receive them automatically.

Regularly monitoring and maintaining operational configurations will help you identify any potential weaknesses or misconfigurations that could leave your software susceptible to cyber threats before anything untoward ever happens.

You can also use that chance to identify bloat in your system. These can manifest themselves through things like unnecessary software or unwanted hardware.

Taking a proactive stance toward managing operational systems and configurations can be repetitive, but it’s part of a well-rounded security protocol for your enterprise software.

Enhance your password management

Photo by Volodymyr Kondriianenko on Unsplash

As part of your software’s security measure, you likely have passwords in place for it. However, you must also ensure your password management processes work to improve your security.

One of the fundamental aspects of effective password management is ensuring that all user accounts within your enterprise software have strong and unique passwords—none of that 1234 or ‘password’ password nonsense for your enterprise software.

Reminding your team to create strong passwords for their accounts is something that you should be firm about. Also, send reminders when your employees must create a new account password.

Furthermore, utilizing advanced password management tools can provide an additional layer of security. These tools will make it easier to do things like password sharing. You can then revoke access at any time with these password-sharing tools.

Use multi-factor authentication

As mentioned earlier, MFA or multi-factor authentication is, at this point, a requirement and not an ‘extra’ level of protection. Even if someone manages to get someone in your team’s username and password, they will still need to send alerts to the user to gain access.

It’s simple, but that extra protection helps notify you of both attempts and security issues you should be aware of.

Create a disaster recovery plan

Preventing security threats is essential, but it will also help you have a disaster recovery plan after a crisis strikes you and your software.

If you identify a breach, that disaster recovery plan will show you protocols for you and your employees. That way, you aren’t flustered and spending precious minutes confused instead of tackling that security issue head-on.

Use both antivirus software and firewalls

Although this is something you probably already do, it’s worth repeating. Ensure you have both antivirus software and firewalls in place, especially for devices you use when you access your enterprise software.

Your firewall is there to help control the traffic that goes in and out of your organization’s system, mainly through the Internet. It’s a form of data access control like the ones we covered earlier.

Conclusion

Whether it be through your data access control or better cyber hygiene and maintenance, there are different things you can do that can benefit your enterprise software’s security. Try these out if you plan on incorporating enterprise software for a long time into your company’s operations. That way, you can be more efficient without adding cybersecurity risks.

Written by Andi Croft

Andi Croft is a freelance writer interested in topics related to business, technology, and travel. She has a passion for meeting people from all walks of life and bringing along the latest tech to enhance her adventures.

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