As many businesses grow larger and their internet presence becomes much more popular, they will often find themselves in trouble with hackers and other nasty threats if they do not take the necessary steps to protect themselves. You will already have heard on the news in recent times about some of the biggest businesses in the world that have had their systems hacked and a lot of personal information was stolen, such as customer’s credit cards and other information. Sometimes, getting hacked can’t be prevented, and that is more or less what businesses have to accept, but, if you take the necessary steps, you can make sure you are as protected as can be.
Protecting your internet isn’t about making it impossible for hackers to get in, it’s about making it as hard as possible for them to get in – because at the end of the day nothing is 100% secure. To do this, there are plenty of steps you can take and points to consider to make sure your business and its clients are protected. Have a look at the following information to help protect your business.
What threats are out there?
- Spear phishing scams – A phishing scam or sometimes known as a “Spear Phishing” scam, is usually somebody trying to get access to the admin side of things by simply emailing and asking for passwords whilst posing as the businesses I.T department.
- Malicious code – Malicious code can be one of the worst security threats because it can get into a computer and then leak through the computers network, deleting loads of files and programs which can ultimately cost businesses millions of dollars.
- Unsecured internet – Whether a business is primarily focused on online sales or offline sales, they will always need access to the internet whether they only have an office or they have a chain of shops. It has been noted that a group of hackers recently connected to an unsecured network in a popular shopping chain and stole millions of customer’s financial data. An unsecured connection for this shopping chain ended up costing them millions.
- Employee threads – This might not sound like it could ever happen to you but if you treat your employees badly, it could always come back and bite you as employees will often have a lot of computer access.
These are just some of the threats that can happen just from being careless, and as you can see, it can end up being very costly.
Have a look at the following ways in which you can protect your business:
- Secure connections – Always secure your connections with multiple passwords and encryptions. It might be a bit of a pain connecting to the internet with a password at all times but at least it’s going to keep the hackers out from doing any damage.
- Latest software/updates – It’s important to use all of the latest software and hardware in the office and to make sure it is all updated, all it takes is one update to have a security flaw and that could be the end of your business. It might sound dramatic, but the bigger your business, the more responsibilities you have over client data.
- Anti-malware protection – This one is obvious but make sure you use all of the latest anti-malware protection software like spyhunter to keep you in the know of the latest threats out there. Having anti-malware could prove to be invaluable to any business looking to protect themselves from hackers.
- Strict employee access – Only give higher access levels to employees you trust and have been employed by the company for a long while.
- Data encryption – Whether you have client data stored on a drive or you need to transport client data from one computer to another, make sure their data is encrypted at all times because simply losing that drive could prove fatal.
- Employee knowledge – Always make sure your employees are aware of what the threats are to your business and how they can help prevent it from happening. Make them aware of suspicious emails and other threats that lie waiting for them – simply clicking on the wrong link in an email could potentially cause mayhem.
These are just a few of the ways in which you can protect your business and the more time you spend protecting your business means there is less chance of a hacker getting anywhere near your clients data. The whole idea of preventing a hack is to limit the hackers chances of ever gaining access of your network.