By owning a small business might make you think you are too small to be noticed. Small businesses are exactly what hackers want. They are less likely to have Cybersecurity in place. Over half of the Malware attacks today are geared toward these unsuspecting business, in 2017 costing small business over $2.2 million dollars in damage. As more small business are popping up these days, these numbers are growing. It is time to take steps.
There are many layers to your Cybersecurity. Let us take a moment to review these:
Train Employees
Take some time to create a Cybersecurity Manual for your business. Things you should include are password rules concerning personal employee workstations, instructions for keeping other employee, vendor and client information safe and what actions should be taken if a security beach occurs. Provide clear training to emphasize these security protocols for your business.
Update Computers
Regular updates to Operating Systems, browsers, and hardware will keep them safe from the latest threats.
Make sure you also keep all mobile devices used for business up to date with the latest security also.
Secure Your WiFi
It is easy to forget that you wireless signal can go beyond the walls of your office. I good strong password can prevent outside hackers from getting on to your business network and pilfering through your companies unsecured and shared files.
Physical security
Keeping your passwords strong, computers up to date is all well and good but are you forgetting something? Many offices have a store room where they keep old computers, broken hard drives and other hardware no longer in use. These items can be a security nightmare as they may have customer, personal or vendor information stored on them. For best security practices it is best to have these things securely destroyed.
Limit Access
In a recent study it was shown that 1 out of 4 security breaches was not from an external threat but internal in nature. The teenage Cashier at the front of you business doesn’t need to know how to get a hold of your client list and the College kid you have doing tech work for you doesn’t really need access to your accounting records.
Email security
It is never a good idea to use your personal email account for business or your business email account for personal. A good practice to make a habit is to make sure that each account has it’s own password also.
Create Backups
When it comes to your business redundancy is a good thing! Secure backups can be a life or business saver as accidents do happen. There are many different types of back-up from just having an external drive you keep in a fire proof safe to the Cloud. Some business even use both!
Invest in proven antivirus/anti-malware software
The greatest password in the word can not save you if one of you employees clicks that unknown link and accidentally downloads a keylogger virus. A good antivirus can also keep one computer on your network from getting infected by another computer.
Cyber insurance may be an option
When a small business is attacked by malware, the information it keeps for clients becomes compromised; hackers may keep information for ransom. Cyber insurance can cover the costs involved with apprising customers whose data has been breached, expenses involved with business losses, out of pocket forensic investigations, possible lawsuits, and any extortion fees.
This is just a sampling of things you can do to beef up your safety. If your small business is ready to take the plunge into an ironclad protection, has any questions about it’s Cybersecurity give us a call at DME Computer Services 402-650-8407!
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