Tips To Protect Your Small Business From Cyber Threats
By Syed Aijaz VP, Strategic Solutions
You may have seen cyberattacks in the media on large businesses and companies, losing the personal data of millions and putting further people’s data at risk.
Smaller businesses often have much less protection and fewer resources to dedicate to protecting against cyberthreats for businesses – this makes them the easiest target for hackers. It’s not just those big-name businesses that are at risk of being hacked.
What is a Cyberattack?
You do all that you can to protect your business from being hacked, but a cyberattack is the unauthorized attempt to access your data to expose or destroy it. Almost half of all businesses have suffered a cyberattack in the past year, and there are four common types out there of which you should be aware. These include:
- Malware. This is short for “malicious software” and it’s the type of cyberattack that acts completely against the intent of the user. You may have heard of these as “Trojan Horse” viruses, or worms in your software systems.
- Ransomware. This is a form of malware that asks for money as a “ransom” to a negative consequence. So, a hacker will threaten to publish or delete data if money isn’t exchanged and this negative consequence is often enough of a threat to ensure that a business owner will follow through.
- Phishing. The scam that attacks via email or text is known as phishing. This is a difficult scam to spot given that the emails look as if they come from a reputable company. Your bank or your credit card provider should email or text you with links, so if you do get these messages, you need to report them immediately to your provider.
- Man-in-the-middle attack. This is the attack that happens when a scammer intercepts communications between two parties and it’s designed to steal login credentials or account details. They can often occur in areas where free public Wi-Fi hotspots are present. You connect yourself to what you think is a legitimate Wi-Fi connection, but once you connect to it, you will have all of your online activity monitored and your information was stolen.
Protecting Your Small Business From Cyber Attacks
Below, we have a few ways that you can protect your business from cyberattacks. Let’s take a look!
Get Educated
To be able to stay on top of the potential cyber threats for businesses, you’re going to need to educate yourself as much as possible. There are courses that you can take online and there is a National Cybersecurity Awareness Month held in October to raise awareness of it.
Create A Cybersecurity Plan
This is a plan that should include everything from an employee training program to an incident response plan. This is your first step in securing your network and ensuring that your employees are better positioned to understand procedures and security policies. This cybersecurity plan is going to help you to act quickly in the face of a cyberattack and you will be able to stay on top of the attack and prevent too much damage from happening to your systems.
You should include who should be contacted in the event of an attack or threat, where the data is stored as well as the data backups, and when the authorities should be contacted if there is a security breach. There are plenty of cyber planning options out there that can help!
Be Smart About Passwords
It’s becoming more and more common for businesses to choose to use case-sensitive passphrases instead of passwords for their business.
The length and type of password you choose need to be harder for people to remember, and the complexity of the passwords that you choose will help to protect your business for longer. Consider multi-factor authentication, too, as this can offer secure layers before your data is accessed, making it much harder to get to.
Increasing Password Security
As well as ensuring that you have multi-factor authentication for your data and your systems, you should remember to increase your password security for your emails. If you are dealing with personal data, it’s important to encrypt the files and the cloud so that your emails and your data is not accessed unless necessary.
Introduce Firewalls & Antivirus Software
If you want to ensure that you have a protected cloud and online server, you need to ensure that you have the best firewalls and antivirus software possible. There are two broad categories of firewalls, but hardware and software firewalls differ.
The one thing that they both have in common is that they protect your computer. Some of them scan your computer to remove malware that has made it through, and most stop viruses from getting through in the first place.
Secure Your Wi-Fi Network
When you first get your Wi-Fi equipment, you’ll notice that it’s not secure the first time that you buy it. It comes with a password but it’s better to ensure that you encrypt it with your own unique passcodes, too. The router will let you choose from multiple password types, but the WPA2 code is the most secure.
With ExterNetworks Services, you will find a business that takes proper necessary security steps that can help businesses remain protected from cyberthreats.
