There's hardly any business nowadays that don't use computers and connect to the Internet. Companies maintain an online presence through their official websites, blogs, and social media pages.

People use online services to conduct day to day activities like banking. And of course, there are many businesses that are completely based on the web like online markets, e-Commerce websites and financial services.

All of these activities create opportunities for cyber attacks. Various threats can affect websites, online services, API endpoints, and the applications used or provided by businesses.

Such devastating attacks include privacy intrusion, DDoS attacks, data breaches, defacements of websites, online store shutdowns, scraping, payment fraud, abuse of online services, and backdoor installations.

The 2019 Cost of Cybercrime Study by Accenture reports that there has been a 67% increase in cyber attacks over the last five years. The corresponding increase in financial terms is pegged at 72% or a $13 million average cost of cybercrime (in 2018).

It only makes perfect sense to beef up cybersecurity. Robust protection is critical for businesses of all sizes. Even small businesses can become victims. Cybercrimes are typically indiscriminate, and since there are more small businesses than larger ones, statistics would show that the bulk of cyber-attacks tend to affect small businesses.

According to the Verizon 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, 43% of cyber attacks were aimed at small businesses.

Considering all the severity and prevalence of potential attacks, it's not right to randomly select a cybersecurity solution to have. It's advisable to look for the following attributes or features:

1.) Multi-feature Solution

If you are going to spend on a cybersecurity solution, make sure it's one that is capable of addressing virtually all of the possible attacks.

To be clear, there is no real all-in-one cybersecurity solution available anywhere. You may find software marketed as such, but they are unlikely to live up to the label. After all, it's difficult to set the perimeters as to what is "all" when it comes to cyber-attacks.

Cybercriminals find new ways to achieve their felonious goals in cyberspace as their attacks are thwarted. These new attacks may not be covered by the products advertised as all-in-one solutions.

Image Credits: Reblaze

The goal should be to find a solution that provides the features that cover as many threats as possible. Don't settle for something that only detects and prevents malware infection, even as it does this in real-time.

It's impractical to use multiple cybersecurity solutions to address different threats to your infrastructure. Aside from taking up more space and computing resources, the use of several software can be costly.

2.) Monitoring

Robust cybersecurity is achieved when you are aware of what's going on with your computer, network, and online assets. That's why it greatly helps if you use a tool that readily presents a variety of useful information.

These include your web traffic data, the CPU and RAM used by different applications, new programs installed, and the new files created in your device.

Choose a security solution that comes with robust monitoring functions that operate seamlessly with the rest of your infrastructure. If you can quickly see your web traffic stats (incoming and outgoing), for example, you can see if something anomalous is happening in your system.

A consistent stream of outgoing traffic even when you are not uploading anything can mean that someone is stealing your files discreetly. If you find new files in your computer or software that you can't remember downloading or installing, it could mean that malware has infected your device.

3.) Bot Management

At present, the majority of cyber-attacks are no longer conducted by individual hackers. The number of human hackers has increased over the years, but not at the same exponential rate the number of cyber attacks has grown.

Most attempts to defeat cybersecurity defenses are undertaken automatically by bots. It is estimated that around 40% of Internet traffic is generated by malicious bots trying to find their way into networks, devices, or online accounts to infect.

The cybersecurity solution you choose needs to be designed with bots in mind. It should have essential anti-bot functions such as rate-limiting, signature detection, blacklisting, reCAPTCH, and other strategies that can detect bot activity and stop them in their tracks before they can create any damage.

Image Credits: Reblaze

Additionally, it should have tools to counter advanced bot deployment strategies such as JSON payload inspection and other data integrity assurance systems, advanced environmental identification, biometric behavioral programming, and API scheme ingestion.

4.) Artificial Intelligence

AI and machine learning are not just about creating interactive robots or virtual entities capable of conversing with humans in a natural way. It can also be applied in fortifying cybersecurity.

AI development has significantly advanced that it can be trained to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of cyber threat detection and prevention. With the help of deep learning algorithms, security systems can be trained to more effectively and rapidly identify potential threats based on data collected from computer users worldwide.

At the same time, AI helps minimize the inefficiencies caused by false positives.

Be wary of deceptive marketing, though. You may find many security systems that are advertised to have AI or machine learning capabilities, but they may not actually deliver the expected benefits.

Go over tech reviews or comments from knowledgeable users first to ascertain that the AI-powered solution you are getting works, especially when it comes to establishing behavioral profiles of users of apps, websites, and API endpoints.

5.) Full Management and Support

Lastly, give preference to security solutions that are supplied with full management and support.

You may be tech-savvy to some extent, but you may not have enough competence to manage a cybersecurity system with advanced functions. Setting up and administering a security system takes time and can be prone to mistakes, so it's better to let the real experts handle it (remotely).

You can just learn how it works (and do it on your own) as you use the system, but don't try to DIY your way around as you try to secure your business or digital assets. Also, inquire about the dependability and competence of the support team of the solution you are considering. Make sure you will not be having support problems later on.

Conclusion

In summary, the best possible cybersecurity solution to get is one that comes with multiple features to deal with as many types of threats as possible.

Notably, it should be equipped with robust monitoring functions, advanced bot management, an AI-backed ability to identify and handle threats and attacks, and competent remote management and support.

Not many security solutions provide the aforementioned attributes. However, if you want the best possible protection for your business, you need to examine your options based on the points discussed above prudently.

For example, Reblaze. Unlike traditional cybersecurity solutions, Reblaze is a cloud-based, fully managed protective shield for sites and web applications that blocks hostile traffic in the cloud, before it reaches the protected network.

Reblaze is a comprehensive web security solution, providing a next-gen WAF, DoS and DDoS protection, bot mitigation, scraping prevention, CDN, load balancing, and more.

Reblaze offers a unique combination of benefits, including:

• Machine learning to provide accurate and adaptive threat detection.
• Dedicated Virtual Private Clouds to ensure maximum privacy.
• Top-tier infrastructure to assure maximum performance.
• Fine-grained ACLs to enable precise traffic regulation.
• An intuitive web-based management console to provide real-time traffic control.