Top Cyber Security Tips To Keep Your Business Safe.

17 January, 2020

 

Cyber-attacks have been becoming more common recently. Criminals are attacking smaller businesses more than more significant enterprises. This is because small companies are more convenient for these criminals because their owners think no one will attack an unimportant place, and they don’t have proper cybersecurity measures in place. However, it doesn't matter if your organization is dominant or not; here are some tips to help you upgrade security. Also, what could happen if you don’t.

 

The Basic Tips

 

Be Careful About Posting Online

 

Internet posts can get many people in trouble. It would help if you were careful about what you say online about yourself for others. It could lead to a potential problem with the law, or criminals and hackers could target you. For example, you are telling them that there will be less security and far fewer people by telling your online followers that you are going to close business up for renovations, and they can come and rob the place. It would be best if you also were very careful about breeching any contracts. It will also cause harm if you disclose any personal information about someone or defame them without evidence.

 

Categorize The Data By Importance

 

If you plan on keeping everything secure, categorize all the data by their importance. The files that are public information don't need to be carefully guarded but still should have some measure of security. The data that has an average level of importance to your organization, that means it won't hurt your business if it was exposed, can have more advanced safety. Finally, you need to ensure that every possible precaution has been taken for the confidential files. The classified data needs heavy protection, which is why only a limited number of people in your organization should have access to the sites where they are placed.

 

Regularly Install Updates

 

Hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities in companies’ systems. That is why periodically updating your network is one of the best things to do. Make sure all the devices are still supported by the manufacturer and get regular updates. Also, remind all the employees that they must install all these patches as soon as they are notified.

 

These updates don’t only add new features to the systems, but they also fix any bugs in the security measures of these devices. To ensure this, set al the gadgets to be automatically updated. If they need to be tested before installing, then make sure that your IT support plans to apply them as soon as possible.

 

Back-Up All The Data

 

You should already know how important it is to keep your data safe. If the original data is lost, stolen, or leaked somehow, the backup will help you restore it. Backups can also be useful when someone in your business tries to fabricate files to incriminate you.

It would be best to classify these files into different categories as well, not by the matter of importance but by what things to store together. You can arrange all the personal details of employees and customers, along with their credentials, in one place. Files that are generated by the organization, like financials, private information, operational data, should be kept on another site.

 

It would be best if you automated all the backups. The importance of the data can decide the frequency of backups. Most important can be backed up a few times a day, whereas the least can be once every couple of days.

 

Finally, it is essential that you store all the data off-site. It would be ideal if these files were not on your own server; having them offline would be best.

 

Taking Precautions To Uphold Cyber Security At The Workplace

 

Tell Your Employees About The Importance Of Passwords

 

Your employees must know the importance of creating strong passwords. These can later come back and bite them if not correctly taken care of. Have a meeting with all the workers and guide them. The following points will you a general idea:

 

• Make sure they don’t share the passwords with anyone in or outside the workplace. Even writing those down on paper, or storing in a note application on their handheld device can be risky.
• It is essential that they also don’t share the login details with the authorized individuals over the internet. Communications need to be encrypted for them to be secure.
• Have software to manage all the passwords in the company. Ask all the employees to use the manager, and create strong passwords. Robust passwords shouldn’t be related to their life in any way; they should actually make no sense at all.

 

Have An Incident Response Strategy In Place

 

Having an incident response strategy in place can be very useful, as it prepares your company for any attack in advance. Even if you apply every possible security measure, there is still a slight possibility of a hack. The plan will help you stay ahead of it by being quickly responding and making sure they don’t get hold of the sensitive files. It will also be best to inform the customers and media if the breach can cause harm. Assign a trusted person the responsibility of handling the plan. They will need the assistance of a team as well, to carry out the project.

 

Plan Combatting Any Possible Attack

 

Analyze All The Possible Internal Threats

 

It is vital that you thoroughly analyze every possible threat. Look at the digital possibilities first. Then take a look at the details on the current employees, make sure they have clean records. Make sure that former employees still don’t have access. Conduct a thorough background check on the new candidates. Finally, check all the third parties or vendors that you are in business with.

 

Plan External Communications

 

In case you are the victim of a cyber-attack, it would be best to inform a supervisory authority of the situation as soon as possible. Often, it is someone in the government. It can be beneficial to you as well. It is also essential that you notify all the people whose information got leaked, like customers, employees, or contractors.

 

Ensuring Future Safety

 

Getting Cyber Insurance

 

Every business has numerous insurance policies in place to safeguard their financials in every possible way. Cyber insurance is one of the most important ones, and this covers the loss of private data. It is also good to make sure it covers your business during downtime.

 

IoT infrastructure

 

More companies are connecting devices to a network that can communicate with each other nowadays, and this will increase the efficiency and productivity of their systems. This is called IoT infrastructure. Everything, including sensors and other gadgets, needs to have an identity. If everything has a unique personality, they can be easily authenticated when they come online. This system will secure and encrypt the communication between the different devices.

 

Hire A Professional Hacker

 

It is not easy to know the possible vulnerabilities that criminals might exploit in your company’s systems. Only a hacker can identify the ways that other hackers might think. That is why it can prove very useful to have a hacker on your team. Not all of them are bad people who want to sell your secrets to others. The good ones are called white hat hackers. It shouldn’t be hard to find one.

 

Have Strong Authentication Systems

 

Having reliable authentication systems to make sure all the essential data is safe is a great practice. However, it would be best if you also did the same thing for business infrastructures. Having multiple security systems that help identify the person trying to gain access can be very useful. For example, you will need to answer several questions and pass security tests to gain access to your money in a financial company, and a similar thing happens if you lose the login details of a social media account.

 

Use The Cloud To Your Advantage

 

Many small or medium enterprises make use of the cloud nowadays. It can be a beneficial tool for businesses that want to outsource the protection of their data to larger companies. However, it would help if you were very careful when picking a cloud service provider. Ask them for the location of all their data centers, and what the measures they take to ensure safety are.

 

What Could Happen If You Don’t Apply Every Security Measure

The first thing that will have a drastic effect is the financials. The criminal will most likely have all the financial information about your company. You will also lose a significant number of clients. Doing damage control, re-evaluating all the security systems, and repairing things will also be a heavy burden.

 

The second thing it will damage is your company’s reputation. All your clients will lose trust in you. It will affect relationships with partners, investors, and any other third parties related to your business.

 

Finally, it can also result in lawsuits. People can call you into criminal courts for many reasons. It would be best to hire a Vista Criminal Lawyer to represent you in front of a judge if you are in California.