Top 4 Strategies to Mitigate Targeted Cyber Intrusions The Government of Canada’s Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre CCIRC recommends that network administrators implement the following four mitigation strategies which can prevent as much as 85% of targeted cyber attacks Ranking Mitigation Strategy Rationale 1 Use application whitelisting to help prevent Application whitelisting is one of the best malicious software and unapproved security strategies as it allows only programs from running specified programs to run while blocking all others including malicious software 2 Patch applications such as Java PDF viewers Flash web browsers and Microsoft Office 3 Patch operating system vulnerabilities 4 Restrict administrative privileges to operating systems and applications based on user duties Vulnerable applications and operating systems are the target of most attacks Ensuring these are patched with the latest updates greatly reduces the number of exploitable entry points available to an attacker Restricting these privileges may prevent malware from running or limit its capability to spread through the network Reporting a cyber security incident Recognizing that cyber security is a shared responsibility which can be enhanced through information sharing Canadian critical infrastructure organizations are encouraged to partner with and report cyber security incidents to CCIRC at cyber-incident@ps-sp gc ca