With the ease of high-speed internet making for smoother business transactions, it’s no surprise that many small business owners rely on the ability to use their desktop, mobile, and laptop devices. The problem is that you’re putting a lot of information out there to be stolen by cyber thieves. Your website, online financial software, customer data, and social media accounts are all areas that thieves may attack.
Although nothing is one hundred percent safe, whether digital or physical, there are some practices you can employee to decrease your chances of cybercrime. Let’s take a look at what these are below.
Keep Your Systems Up-To-Date
Anytime there is a new update available for your security software, web browser or operating system make sure that it gets installed. It’s very easy to put these installations off, but the longer you wait to do so the more vulnerable you are to cyber-attacks.
As these software, browser, and operating system companies find out about how hackers are getting into their systems, they create patches. These are unveiled in their updates. By installing the latest update, you can decrease the risk of a hacker getting into your system.
Secure Your Wi-Fi
Unless you offer free wi-fi as part of your business, it’s a good idea to make it as secure as possible. You can make it encrypted and hidden from wi-fi network searches from other devices. This will help to keep all your network computers blocked from other people’s view.
Require Password Changes
One of the most secure things you can do for your business is to require all employees to change their passwords for your online systems every few months. Make sure you set strong requirements for passwords as well. If your expenses allow it, opt for two-factor authentication for beefier security.
Backup Your Business Data
Running regular backups of both your offline and online files is a must. Store the backups on a separate drive that is off-site or in the cloud. This should include all your financial files, human resource files, accounts payable, accounts receivable, documents, spreadsheets, and databases. Again, storing this information somewhere other than your computer is essential.
Have Mobile Device Protocols
Set a standard of how employees may access your business networks from their mobile devices. Require password logins, encrypted data, security apps, and other mobile security services to ensure your business’s information is always protected.
Limit Access To Your Data Systems To Necessity Only
Although it may be easier to allow every employee access to all the business’s records, it’s not that safe. Each employee should only have access to the business records they absolutely need to do their specific job. No one employee should have access to every data system of the business.
Have Firewalls And Anti-Virus Software
Add that extra layer of security by installing firewalls and anti-virus software on all your business computers. Make it a policy requirement for all employees who work from home to have these minimum requirements before accessing any of the business databases or files.
Educate Employees On Phishing
If you’re not sure what phishing is, you may want to hire an expert to explain it to you and your employees. Phishing is most commonly seen in emails that are asking you to update your account information.
The links in these emails lead to the scammers made up site that looks similar to the brand site they are pretending to be working for. They use this trick to collect your business and personal information. This is one of the biggest threats to your online business security because so many people fall victim to it.