Today, cyber attack is a threat to just about every business that uses technology infrastructure to power their everyday operations. In fact, global spending on cybersecurity is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2021. As a business owner, there are several ways you can protect your business from online scams, viruses, trojans, and data breach. Keep in mind that you’re responsible for ensuring a culture of safety and security to maintain your reputation and customers’ confidence.
In this post, we’re going to explore some of the ways you can keep your business safe. Read on to learn more.
1. Employee Training
In a typical workplace, human error is one of the leading causes of cyber attacks. Many employees create a mistake unwittingly, providing opportunities for hackers to exploit. So, the first thing you need to consider doing is offer training on using tech systems and online services.
Email and social media scams are some of the common things that lead to data breach. Your employees should be able to identify and avoid such threats. Make sure to establish security policies and practices for your employees, such as internet use guidelines and penalties for violation.
2. Protect Your Devices
Keeping your work machines and devices is the most important step in securing your business. Ensure you’re using the latest operating system, web browsers, and security softwares that have the current definitions for malware, viruses, and online threats. Using outdated systems may pose vulnerabilities that cyber criminals can use to get to you.
Ensure you’re using an anti-virus program to scan every software and updates whenever necessary. Portable devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, and tablets, can also pose significant security challenges, especially if they’re holding critical data. Employees using such devices for work must password-protect their devices and encrypt all the data.
Installing a security app on the devices that will allow you to delete data remotely when a device is lost is also important.
3. Secure Your Networks
If you have a business Wi-Fi internet, it’s advisable to hide, secure, and encrypt it for optimal cyber protection. On your router settings, you want to use the WPA2 security protocol as it’s the most secure. Also, avoid using the default SSID name and change it to something that many people cannot know.
You can also use the MAC address filtering system to allow only work devices and laptops to access your Wi-Fi. In this case, no other laptop can access your work internet if their MAC addresses have not been added to your list. Also, consider reducing the signal range of your Wi-FI by using the 802.11g specification to transmit internet over short distances. Your router’s firmware should always be up to date every time.
4. Use Backup Services
As a security measure, it’s advisable for businesses to use backup services provided by a third party IT company. In some cases, it’s possible to be a victim of a cyber attack regardless of your security measure. When this occurs, the last thing you want is losing critical data to cyber criminals that are targeting to liquidate your business.
Instead, use cloud backup services to store critical data, such as databases, human resources files, financial files, account receivable/payable files, and electronic spreadsheets. Depending on the level of service you pick, you can backup your data automatically or weekly. This way, it’s easier to access and restore your data in minutes in the wake of an attack.
Secure Your Business!
These are some of the practical ways you can actually start using to secure your business now. There are other ways, such as limiting employee access to critical company data, controlling physical access to computers, and adhering to industry recommended guidelines for payment cards and health information data. Cybersecurity is an ongoing task that requires regular updates and monitoring.
Lara Morrison is an influencer marketing pro with brownboxbranding.com who is passionate about building authentic relationships and helping businesses connect with their ideal online audience. She keeps her finger on the pulse of the ever-evolving digital marketing world by writing on the latest marketing advancements and focuses on developing customized blogger outreach plans based on industry and competition.