According to one recent study, 52 percent of business owners believe that their company will be hit with a successful cyber-attack within the next year. In addition to costing you money, a single security breach could devastate your company’s reputation and drive customers away. As a business owner, you should constantly be looking for new ways to protect your company’s sensitive data.
Always Be Wary of Unusual Emails
Opening a compromised document that has been sent to your email address could bring your entire company’s network down in moments. Many of these phishing emails are designed to steal data such as passwords, names, phone numbers, bank information, and addresses. If an email looks even remotely suspicious, then you should contact the sender to verify its contents before opening it.
Use Proper Passwords
Many employees don’t realize just how important it is to choose good passwords. Breaking into an account that has a long and complicated password is extremely difficult for the average cybercriminal. A good password needs to be a mixture of letters and numbers that is at least eight digits long.
Keep an Eye Out for Social Engineering
One of the ways that criminals steal information is a process known as social engineering. They will attempt to collect as much information as possible on a single individual in order to break into their accounts or impersonate them. You and your employees should be wary of anyone who asks for private information on the phone or through emails. Every piece of information that they collect will make it easier for them to break into your system.
Keep All of Your Devices Updated
Most tech manufacturers devote an incredible amount of resources to keeping their hardware and software updated. Some of the updates that they release could address security issues that have recently been brought to their attention. That is why all of the devices and programs that your employees use should be updated at least once every week or two. You can schedule the updates to take place at night or on the weekend so that they don’t interrupt your business.
Enroll Your Employees in a Security Awareness Course
Many different firms, such as Global Learning Systems, now offer security classes specifically for commercial clients. These classes will teach your employees about some of the most common scams and what they can do to avoid them. They will also learn basic security etiquette such as how to protect their personal devices and what to do if they feel like their information has been compromised.
When it comes to your company’s security, you should always err on the side of caution. If you still feel as if your business is vulnerable, then you might want to consider hiring an outside firm to conduct a security audit on your website as well as your servers.
This guest post is courtesy of Dixie Somers.