Keeping Your Business Safe From Cybercrime

Cybercrime is a big problem and it is one that is continually on the rise. As the world gets wise to one particular form of attack, another will come. Regardless of the size of your business, you need to be sure that you treat the threat of a cyber-attack seriously and that you are protecting yourself in as many ways as possible. 

Data breaches are a major cause of concern for businesses, particularly if you hold any personal information about your customers. If any data gets into the wrong hands, then you may be putting your customers at risk of identity theft and this can have a major financial impact on many people’s lives. 

Data breaches happen in many different ways. It may be the result of human error if somebody clicks on a ‘phishing link’, it could be the result of a prolonged and aggressive attack on your system such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) hack, or it may be due to a lack of policy surrounding the use of passwords.

If you suffer a data breach you may end up having to pay out considerable sums in damages to your customers, your brand image will be damaged, and you may be required to pay fines if you were in breach of data protection regulations. 

Consider How You Share Information

If you send or share large pieces of data between your organization, or to external partners, you need to be sure that nothing is getting intercepted and stolen on the route. This is especially important when you are sharing sensitive customer information. 

Pay attention to the level of security that file sharing platforms provide for your business needs. With a rise in the prevalence of cybercrime, you should continually review whether a service is suitable for your needs anymore. Virtual data rooms may offer a far greater level of security in the instance of sharing data. 

Use A Managed Service Provider

One of the best ways that you can ensure that you are able to protect your business from attacks is by bringing in a Managed Service Provider to oversee your security systems. They can do full data protection and security audits on a regular basis and implement all of the required changes while helping you plan how you would deal with the worst-case scenarios.  

Manage Access

Putting tighter practices in place surrounding the use of passwords will help protect your business. Having your staff regularly change their login details on a regular basis along with the use of multi-factor authentication when accessing sensitive data will help prevent unwanted access to your system.

Train Your Staff

By improving the training across your data security, you can cut down on the risk of human error putting your business at risk. Educating all of your team about the dangers of clicking links in emails will help reduce the risk of successful phishing leading to major data breaches and will keep your business protected. 

Image credit:  Pixabay.com

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