Company data security
Data breaches often cause companies to shut down. Even if a company is thriving and winning in the marketplace every day, all that can be lost with a single cyberattack.
With trade secrets gone, customer trust lost and brand reputation ruined, it is often not possible to rebuild. Many business owners are unaware of the threat of data breaches and run their day-to-day operations using a very weak cybersecurity infrastructure. As a business owner, you must avoid this mistake at all costs.
Here are 6 simple ways to protect your company's data and maintain your customers' trust.
Your company's most important data could be leaked or lost tomorrow. With the speed at which these cybersecurity incidents have been growing, you can never be sure that your company is safe. Follow these data security tips to minimize the risk of a breach and protect your business continuity.
Data breaches often cause companies to shut down. Even if a company is thriving and winning in the marketplace every day, all that can be lost with a single cyberattack.
With trade secrets gone, customer trust lost and brand reputation ruined, it is often not possible to rebuild. Many business owners are unaware of the threat of data breaches and run their day-to-day operations using a very weak cybersecurity infrastructure. As a business owner, you must avoid this mistake at all costs.
Here are 6 simple ways to protect your company's data and maintain your customers' trust.
- Use strong passwords. Passwords are the key to all your important business data and your passwords should be as secure as possible. Using weak passwords means protecting your data with a weak lock. Through various types of cyber attacks, hackers can break that lock in a short time. It's just a matter of when they decide to do it. Use long and complicated passwords for each of your business accounts. The best way to protect your passwords without worrying about forgetting them is to use a business password manager. This simple tool will manage your passwords and keep them protected with strong encryption.
- Raise awareness of phishing. Phishing is one of the biggest threats to any company's data security and you should make sure all employees are aware of it. Phishing is when fraudsters send text messages or emails to people and pretend to be someone they are not. These messages are usually aimed at stealing specific data from people or tricking them into making purchases on their behalf. People who are not informed about the most common phishing schemes are very likely to reveal their information if they are attacked. Therefore, you should establish some clear communication protocols with your employees. Instruct them never to send their passwords via email, never to click on random links they receive via email, and to verify any suspicious requests before doing anything.
- Keep sensitive data secret. The more accessible sensitive data is to your employee base, the greater the risk of a data breach. Members of your company may leak your data on purpose: insider threats are actually a big problem. You never know when someone will fall for a phishing scheme and reveal important data. It's best to keep your most important business data secret on a secure cloud server and make sure only a few people have access to it when they need it.
- Install anti-malware tools. Every desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile device should have anti-malware tools installed. The most important ones to install are a firewall and antivirus software. These cybersecurity technologies will keep ransomware and malware off your work devices and away from your sensitive customer and business data. Many devices come with antivirus software and a firewall preinstalled, but you should make sure they are enabled at all times.
- Use encryption. Encryption ensures that your business and customer data is safe from outsiders. For starters, make sure your office network is encrypted. This is the network where all the most important business data is transmitted, and it is the network most likely to be attacked by hackers. Next, set up virtual private networks (VPNs) for all your business devices, which will keep business data encrypted even if the network is not. For example, public WiFi networks often do not offer encryption and you can never know when employees may connect to one when they are out of the office. Whenever employees connect to any network other than the office network, they should always use a VPN. Finally, you can also set up encryption for business email. If all else fails and employees connect to an unencrypted network without a VPN, at least emails will be encrypted and useless to cyber thieves.
- Make a backup. If all your business devices were lost, would your data still be safe and backed up? Most companies have some sort of data backup setup, but it's often not good enough. Your backup should be as secure and up-to-date as possible. If your company's data is constantly changing, you should update the backup every day, or even every hour. The backup should also be reliable. You may even be able to have a couple of backups to be absolutely sure that the data is always safe and secure.
Your company's most important data could be leaked or lost tomorrow. With the speed at which these cybersecurity incidents have been growing, you can never be sure that your company is safe. Follow these data security tips to minimize the risk of a breach and protect your business continuity.