Data security and business security enhancements do not have to be complicated. Creating and following a detailed security plan is considered the best method for protecting your business and the data associated with it. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a large variety of essential-based insights that you need to protect the data associated with your business and your business – as a whole. We will provide you with 12 strategies to protect your business from cyber attacks and data breaches.
1. Explore Costs
It is a known fact that not all data security and associated methods are the same. Before deciding on a solution, it is imperative that you develop an understanding of the risks and the costs to your business – especially in terms of lost data and cyber-attacks. How you engage in this calculation will depend on your unique business model, but the following outlines that which you should consider:
- If you had to recreate customer information, billing, contact lists, and vendor information, would it be possible and if so, how long would it take?
- How much revenue does your business make per hour?
- Howe much would your business lose – per hour – if your business goes down?
- What would the expense be – in overtime – if your business experienced an issue to recover and to catch up on lost time? Are there any other costs that you may incur as a result of lost time?
2. Back Up Data on a Regular Basis
Whether you realize it or not, your business changes from minute to minute. You should not get in the habit of backing up your business data only once each day or each week. If you do this only every so often, and you experience any type of data loss, you will quickly find that it is not easy or even possible to recover that data quickly.
You should back up the data of your business multiple times each and every single day. This provides you with the protection your business needs to get back up and running.
For optimal protection, you should implement a device for disaster recovery that will be immediately ready to relaunch with full system, all the applications you use, and all the data of your business. This will ensure that your recovery efforts go from hours and even days down to minutes.
3. Vulnerability Management
It is essential that you schedule and conduct vulnerability-based scans consistently on all of the servers associated with your business and all other types of systems that are part of your business. This will allow you to be proactive when it comes to identifying flaws in technology. In doing this, you should also get in the habit of patching security flaws in the servers of your business, applications, and any third-party software that your business utilizes.
4. Secure Email
It has been found that one of the easiest strategies for hackers to obtain direct access to the systems that you use is through your email. When you have a business that uses email, you should ensure that it is protected from spam, malware, emails that integrate phishing, links that are malicious, denial of service attacks, and similar issues, you should use business email solutions that provide advanced levels of threat detection and protections.
There should be – at minimum – a security layer that scans all attachments on emails, compares those attachments against a cryptographic-based hash type of database.
Emails that are found to include content that is malicious should be quarantined and then administrators and relevant users should be immediately notified. If no malicious content is discovered, the email will be permitted to pass through – in a seamless manner – to the user.
5. Access Management
You should always identify all users in your electronic-based systems and also maintain a comprehensive audit trail that monitor’s each user and their access to data, applications that are used, systems, and other endpoints.
You should create unique accounts for each of the individuals in your business and avoid the use of generic “ADMIN” accounts.
Once an account is created for the users in your business, you should customize each person’s access based on their role in the company and their individualized work requirements.
6. Encrypt Data
Encryptions will aid in the protection of your business data and any information that moves through the internet. For example, if you accept credit card payments and those cards are being passed to and from within the World Wide Web encryption will ensure that this information is sent in a secure manner rather than what is referred to as a type of “clear text” that can be read by anyone.
Encryption will also secure customer names and all customer information, medical information (if it applies) and other vital information – such as Social Security numbers. This technology is now considered to be “affordable” and promises a solution for businesses that do not want to be subjected to hackers who use these types of information for phishing schemes and gathering personal information to engage in criminal activity.
7. Incident Response
By integrating an incident response process with a plan, you will be allowing users in your business to discover cyber-attacks that occur on the network of your business to that they may prevent a loss or a breach of data. This allows you and your employees to properly prepare in the event of an attack.
8. Practice Safety While Internet Surfing
One of the oldest and most common strategies of breaching business systems is through internet surfing. A user clicks on or hovers over a link that is malicious. When this happens, either ransomware or malware can then very quickly be installed on your device. Then, the data on or associated with that device could be held hostage. Backup systems will help by allowing you to recover your data without the hassle of having to pay a high “ransom” fee. The goal should be to be proactive in preventing the malicious code from getting on the system to start with. It is cheaper to prevent or stop the infection than to recover from a malicious infection.
You should integrate a layer of safety on every device that has the internet to check every little data request that is being made to ensure optimal safety. If there is malicious intent on a website, it is automatically blocked. If there is not, traffic will be routed to the site.
Questionable sites or content will be filtered through tools that scan for viruses and malware. It is important to restrict the types of websites that may be accessed by your employees. This helps to protect your business
9. Cybersecurity Policies
It does not matter how small or large your business is, you should have policies put into place that include educating employees on awareness of internet risks, responsibility guidelines put into place, incident reporting procedures, and guidance related to the use of personal devices that are connected to the internet.
10. Integrate Identity Theft Services
Many banks like us here at Somerville offer identity theft services. You should consider integrating these services into your business. That way, should someone’s identity be stolen while at work, the services will kick in and offer protection, detection, and the full restoration of your identity. These services will provide you with your own private investigator, and numerous other trusted resources such as best practices for managing personal identity and interacting online. This is a feature that is sure to help your business and all who work within that business.
11. Credit Cards Instead of Cash
If you need funds for your business, it may be best to utilize credit cards and not cash. Here at Somerville, you may select from a couple of different credit cards…if you use them, your money is protected. On one, you may earn one point for every dollar that your business spends. On another, you have a low-rate card. Each one offers 8.25% APR for a total of 6 months. Each has a low annual fee – from $15- $25. If you use cash, it cannot be monitored. If you carry cash, you could accidentally lose or misplace it. No business needs to suffer like that. Your money is protected if you use a credit card. Visit the following link now to apply for a business credit card.
12. Online Business Banking
There are numerous benefits associated with the use of online business banking for your company. We realize you may be worried about the safety of your sensitive information, viruses, and other issues, but we here at Somerville Bank offer optimal layers of security on all online business accounts and you will experience many benefits. These include making fewer trips to a physical bank, transfers go through more quickly, it is easier to pay bills, you will be capable to import your business data into accounting software fast and easy, and your account will be consistently monitored.
If you would like more information on protecting your business data and preventing cyber-attacks, contact us here at Somerville Bank by visiting one of our many locations: https://somervillebank.net/locations/
Somerville Bank has 8 Locations