Data security

Protecting Your Business from Cyber Threats

Regardless of the size of your business, you will need to be prepared to protect yourself from cyber attacks at all times. It’s important to note that most cyber attacks occur at small businesses. If you have a small company, then you should take these threats very seriously.

The reason why small businesses are often the target of cyber attacks is that it’s far easier to hack into them than a huge enterprise. Most small companies simply don’t have the proper technology and defenses to handle these attacks. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to protect your business from cyber threats.

However, even if you already have solid security defenses set up, it’s still recommended that you run a few simple tests every once in a while to see if any threats are getting through. Another way to check that your security is up to par is to have a cybersecurity company do threat hunting for you. This will allow you to see if there are any threats that evade your current defenses.

Use Strong Passwords

Using weak passwords is a rookie mistake that can make your business very vulnerable. If you or any of your employees use weak passwords, it will become easier for the hackers to access your data. In order to protect your business, you will need to start learning more about password strength and teaching it to your employees. Remember that it’s always a good idea to use special symbols and numbers, as well as both lower and upper-case letters. On top of that, you can also set up a two-factor authentication to improve your security.

Lock Your Network

In case your company is using Wi-Fi, you will need to make sure that it’s up to the current WPA2 standard. This is very important because the current WPA2 standard has a longer encryption key, which makes breaking into your network more difficult.

Encrypt Your Data

Encrypting your data is arguably the most important thing that you can do in order to protect your business from cyber threats. After all, your company’s database most likely contains very sensitive information like the social security numbers of your employees, as well as bank information. In order to keep this information safe, you should use the full-disk encryption tools that came with your operating system.

This is a process that literally takes less than a minute but is crucial if you want to protect important information. Although these encryption tools will keep your data safe, it’s still important to know that it will only be activated when a login is not in use. This means that in case one of your employees moves away from his or her computer without logging off, a hacker could easily get the sensitive data. In order to avoid these problems, set your computers to automatically log out when no one is using them.

Hire a Security Expert

If you don’t have any knowledge about cybersecurity, then you won’t really be able to know whether your business is vulnerable to attacks or not. This is why it’s a good idea to hire a security expert since he or she will be the one tasked with constantly checking for cybersecurity risks and taking measures to prevent attacks. Hiring a security expert is a great investment and will ensure that your business stays safe. Although it may seem like these are additional costs that you shouldn’t pay, just remember that paying the cost of a data breach is much more expensive.

Put Up a Strong Firewall

Firewalls are essential if you want to properly protect your network. They are important because they control the internet traffic that comes into and flows out of your business. Firewalls basically serve as security guards tasked with protecting your computers.

Use Antivirus Protection

It’s extremely important to have anti-malware and antivirus software installed on your computers if you want to protect your business from cyber attacks. They essentially serve as the last line of defense when an attack gets through to your network.

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