4 Ways to Check If a Freight Company’s Cybersecurity is Working
Implementing a robust cybersecurity system should be a priority for any shipping company. After all, that company is responsible for other people’s property while delivering it. There are many things to do including creating unique logins for each employee, enforcing strong password criteria, using two-stage authentication, keeping the most sensitive data offline in secure systems, performing background checks on all employees, and having third parties do regular and unscheduled security audits. But, you may not know if all of these are working or not. Read on to discover a little more about four ways to assess your cybersecurity’s effectiveness.
1. You Haven’t Been Attacked for a While
Most hackers, despite their extensive skills and ability to crack any system, generally go for “low-hanging fruit” rather than try to break into systems with high security. There will undoubtedly be ill-protected systems that they can attack that will yield far more bounty than going after your well-guarded system. They’re in it for the money they can extract from a company by exploiting security weaknesses. In almost every case, they won’t waste their time with strong systems.
2. Data Hasn’t Gone Missing
Unfortunately, external threats aren’t the only ones you’ll have to face. Betrayal by employees is an uncomfortable subject, but it happens more often than you think. This is why background checks are so important when it comes to vetting prospective employees. You want to minimize the risk that someone steals either capital or knowledge that belongs to the business. As an example, if your business has contracts with United States Government entities, then a theft of information could be much more detrimental and dangerous than simply stealing money from the company. Chances are if you haven’t tracked and/or noticed data “taking a walk,” then your cybersecurity system is most likely working as it should.
3. Stuff Gets Where It’s Supposed to Go on Time
Your cybersecurity must extend to your operations at warehouses, shipping depots, loading docks, and other infrastructure that’s part of your company’s business outside the office. If there is a cyberattack, then that can disrupt your operations and lead to late deliveries and/or certain deliveries never arriving at all. Worse, a cyberattack can scramble your tracking software, which will mean that you won’t know where anything is and possibly won’t be able to correct what’s wrong. So, if your deliveries are happening correctly and on time, then it’s a reasonable assumption that your cybersecurity is functioning.
4. Your Systems Work As They Should
Your employees can log in and out of their accounts in your system without issue. There are no denial-of-service attacks happening that could crash your system. Everyone inside and outside the office has access to the systems needed to complete the required jobs. When everything goes smoothly, then it’s probable that your cybersecurity is up to snuff.
Even if all of these things are going well, it’s still necessary to be vigilant against cyberattacks. You should update your systems regularly and have all employees create new passwords on occasion. Remember, if you make your company into “a tough nut to crack,” cyberattackers will almost assuredly go elsewhere.