As a small business owner, you might not worry about cyber attacks as much as large companies do.
However, you would be a serious mistake if you do not take appropriate measures to protect your business against cyber attacks. Your business may not be as well known as companies like Facebook, Nike or Starbucks, but the threat of a cyber attack still exists for your business.
Indeed, criminals are increasingly targeting smaller companies as most small businesses have more vulnerabilities and are the easiest target.
In its latest Internet Security Threat Annual Report, Symantec found that 31% of all targeted attacks aimed at fewer than 250 employees.
Such attacks can be incredibly expensive for small companies in terms of financial loss, disruption of services, and the time needed to solve the problem. A survey of the 2013 Small Business Technology which surveyed 845 small business owners in industries in the US, "The average cost associated with cyber attacks among those targeted, was $ 8699.48."
in addition, nearly half of all small business owners surveyed said they had at one time been the victim of a cyber attack to prevent cybercriminals to attack your small business, implement the following recommendations.:
Keep Company information Up to Date
One of the easiest strategies you can implement to prevent cybercriminals from hacking into your systems and steal sensitive information is to simply make sure that your company computers are up to date. This means paying attention to notifications on updates to your operating systems, firewalls, web browsers, antivirus software and other third-party plugins. When you ignore these notifications and postpone further through security updates, you are voluntarily leaving cracks in your security defense system.
Keep your antivirus and anti-Målare programs Up to Date
Anti-virus and anti-malware programs are used to prevent, detect and remove malware from computers. Hackers and criminals are constantly developing and releasing new viruses and malware. To avoid computer viruses, Trojans, worms, keyloggers, and other malware from attacking your computer, it is essential that you keep your anti-virus anti-malware programs and current.
According to reports, Google flags somewhere around 10,000 locations each day he deems dangerous for users to visit. Without the constant use of antivirus software, your machines are vulnerable to malware and cybercriminals seeking opportunities to hack into unprotected computers dangerous.
Use strong passwords for all
According to security experts, if the password you use for things like email, social media accounts, and other enterprise software can be found in a dictionary (such as "password" for example), it can be hacked in about thirty seconds. In an article entitled, " How to Devise Passwords that Hackers Away player ," author Nicole Perlroth writes: "A password should ideally be 14 characters or more in length if you want to do uncrackable by an attacker within 24 hours. "Moreover, you must use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
Because longer passwords tend to be harder to remember, consider a passphrase, such as a movie favorite quote, song lyric, or poem, and string together only the first one or two letters of each word in the sentence. " It is also important that you use different passwords for each site or account you have (Facebook, PayPal, e-mail, etc.). If you must keep your account password, do not store them in places that could easily be found (such as your e-mail inbox, on your desktop or on a sticky note).
If you want to use a tool to help you manage all your passwords, you can try LastPass or 1Password. Using these tools, simply to remember a strong password that you use to unlock the tool.
Hiring a consultant security and make the run a check
Hiring a security consultant to find security vulnerabilities in your systems may seem expensive, but it is a service precious that can save you a lot of headaches and money down the road. It is for this reason that companies like Facebook have developed programs that reward security researchers and other "white hat hackers" to find and inform them about potential security risks.
With over 1.11 billion people using the social networking site each month, the company takes great measures to protect a huge amount of private data and information. As a small business owner, it is important that you make similar investments to avoid costly cyber attacks.
train your staff Cyber security practices
According to the site CyberFactors.com, including domestic workers are responsible for 40 percent of small business offenses. If you have employees, you must spend time training and educating them on the different types of cyber attacks and how they can help prevent cyber attacks. For starters, Forbes recommends the following: ..
- Train your employees on IT risk
- Create simple and clear corporate policies regarding technology
- put someone in charge of security.
For more details on each of the recommendations listed above, click here.
does not retain the stored sensitive data you no longer need
You should dispose of sensitive information stored on your company computers you need more. It can be easy to forget the documents hidden away in files on your computer. If you have sensitive information from former clients, employees, contractors, or any other party that you interact with most, you still have a responsibility as a business owner to keep the sensitive information supplied to you safe from criminals on the Internet. Consider putting in place a plan to eliminate or wipe useless information like this from your company computers safely and regularly.
Using a VPN
ServiceYour laptop and mobile device probably contain confidential information and data that you would not want stolen. But if you can access the Internet wirelessly with low security areas (public WiFi networks are inherently insecure), you are vulnerable to hacker attacks.
Without strong security measures in place, a hacker can easily access data and information on your computer using various methods. The best way to protect data and information into and out of your device when accessing the Internet via WiFi is to use a VPN service. A VPN encrypts all your Internet communications and prevent anyone from tracking your Internet activity and steal your personal and sensitive information.
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