The internet is one of the best places to advertise your small business. Through using clever digital marketing tools and strong online advertising campaigns, you will be able to attract much more exposure and awareness for your company than without. The internet can be a very beneficial tool for a small business to use. However, having an internet presence can sometimes be used against small businesses, and can put you at risk. Cyber attacks have risen in previous years, which has meant that small businesses have had data and money stolen from them. However, by taking steps, you can prevent your company from being hacked or targeted. These are some of the best tips for keeping your company protected online.
Backup All Data
This is one of the most important things when it comes to making sure that your data is safe. Unfortunately, cybercriminals can hack into your data stores and either delete, hold for ransom, or use your client’s or customer’s financial information. This could cost your company a lot of money, either through the company’s assets or through customer losses. However, some scammers simply delete the data to cause distress and financial losses through recovery. Making sure your data is always backed up and regularly updated could mean that you won’t be affected as severely as if you had completely lost the data. There are many ways in which you can save your data, either through the cloud or via physical storage such as USB pen drives. However, if you use pen drives, you need to make sure that they are stored in a safe place that is fireproof and waterproof.
Install and Update Anti-Virus
Anti-virus software is one of the best ways in which you can protect your company against hackers. This is because hackers will try and trick you or your employees into downloading malware or viruses. This malware can enable them to steal your information, particularly your financial information. They can trick you into this via emails and other methods. However, installing anti-virus software on your business technology and computers can stop the malware and its tracks and stop it from damaging your computers and stealing your data. Getting good anti-virus software can make a big difference when it comes to keeping your business safe.
Use Strong Passwords
Some hackers don’t even need fancy software to steal from and damage your business- all they need to do is guess your password. Some people often use easily identifiable personal information as their passwords, such as their child’s name or spouse’s birthday. This is easily identifiable information in this day and age due to social media. Therefore it’s important that you and your employees use passwords that are less guessable and contain upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters in order to make it more difficult for hackers to guess your password. This is one of the most important ways you can protect your company online.
Use Two Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is one of the best barriers when it comes to protecting business accounts and logins. Two-factor authentication means that your business accounts have a second layer of protection. It means that your company’s business accounts need more than just a password to log in, for example, a code texted to an employee’s phone number or a code from an email would also need to be given in order to access the account. This could also be applied to customer accounts in order to better protect your customer base. This is a great method for preventing hacking.
Encrypt Sensitive Data
Another way in which you can protect your data from being stolen is by encrypting it. Keeping an extra record always helps, but changing the way in which your data is kept can also be very useful in protecting it against hackers. Encryption is a process in which you can convert your data into a code which cannot be accessed by anyone but you. Many cyber security services offer encryption as a vital part of your data protection process. This means that even if hackers manage to access your precious data, they won’t be able to manipulate or use it to steal from you as it will be unavailable to them.
Stay Educated On Phishing
Phishing is one of the most important methods hackers use, and it has only become more sophisticated in recent years. Phishing is where cybercriminals send out leads to try and get you to compromise your company’s information. They do this by trying to get web users (such as your employees) to click a dodgy link or visit an unofficial website. There are many ways they can do this, like pretending to be a client or pretending to be a bank or other service. The phishing email will sometimes look very legitimate, however, there are tells to look out for if an email is not real. Making sure you and your staff are educated on phishing and how to spot it can be a great preventative measure against cyber criminals.
Use A VPN
A virtual private network can be a great tool to use to protect yourself against cyber criminals. A VPN disguises your IP address and location, which some scammers use to target web users and businesses. If your company requires travel and using public wifi, this is a really fantastic tool as hackers can use shared wifi to access your data. A VPN would protect your company’s informational records on shared wifi networks.
Data Insurance
Just like credit insurance protects your company in the event your clients and customers can’t pay anymore, data insurance would financially cover you in case your data was compromised. The loss of data can cause you to lose a lot of money, whether that be through recovery, ransom payments, or compensation. This is where data insurance could financially help you in case the worst happens. This could stop your company from going under in the event you have a data breach.
Protecting your company in 2023 remains as important as ever before as cybercriminals become more and more sophisticated, however by taking these measures you could improve the safety of your business by a large margin.
