Cyber attacks can have serious consequences on any business.
According to a recent study, a staggering 43% of cyber-attacks target small businesses. This contradicts the common belief that smaller businesses are protected over bigger, well-known companies because of their comparatively smaller size and customer bases.
As such, now is the perfect time to upgrade your cybersecurity policies, especially when you consider the far-reaching impact that a single security breach can have on your company. For example, a data leak could:
- Leave you vulnerable to legal troubles and lawsuits
- Cost your business a great deal of money
- Damage your company’s reputation, resulting in lost custom
With that in mind, here are some simple strategies that can be employed to improve your business’ security.
Be aware of the mistakes you are already making.
Before you can begin to update your security policy, you must first ensure that you are aware of the office security mistakes that put you at risk. For example, it could be that your team does not receive adequate security training during the onboarding process. Alternatively, failing to use two-factor authentication when accessing sensitive data could make you more vulnerable to security breaches as a whole.
Set strong passwords.
One of the easiest ways to strengthen your online security is by protecting the privacy of your devices. You should set passwords which are:
- Between 16-20 characters long
- Feature a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters such as punctuation.
- Unique to you, without being easy to guess.
As a general rule, you should also update your passwords every three months, and avoid using the same password across multiple accounts. After all, failing to differentiate your passwords means that once a hacker gains access to one account, they can access them all.
Don’t forget online security practices apply to your phone, too.
When it comes to cybersecurity, it’s easy to focus on the way in which we use devices such as laptops and computers. However, the truth is our phones (especially work phones) contain just as much, if not more, sensitive data and information, which means you must monitor their usage carefully.
For example, hackers sometimes attempt to “track phones,” which can lead to a wide range of business and personal security and safety issues. As such, you may find the following guide on how to know if your phone is being tracked useful.
Have a plan in place for when things go wrong.
While improving your cybersecurity policies will help to prevent attacks and security breaches, it’s also crucial that you have a contingency plan in place for when things go wrong. This way, you are not scrambling to find a solution at the last minute, which can go a long way towards resolving the issue and putting your customer’s minds at ease.
Furthermore, having a plan in place that you can rely on can also save you a great deal of stress and frustration, as you can get back to normality far quicker than if you were forced to find a solution on the spot.
