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Protecting business data is a key priority for any company. Even a single breach can completely ruin a company’s reputation, cost millions to remedy, and make it nearly impossible to fully recover the trust of customers in the future.
But despite the massive danger of ransomware, data breaches, and other cyber threats, a staggering 43% of SMBs don’t have any cybersecurity defense plans. And many others likely have minimal or outdated protection that might not work against the prominent threats that are common today.
The good news is that while there are many risks related to business data, there are also ways you can protect your company against them.
With that in mind, let’s go over some of the main ways you can keep your data secure today and in the future.
Evaluate Your Needs
Finding the right security measures for your data can seem like an impossible task. With so many strategies, software solutions, and infrastructure opportunities, it’s easy to get lost when weighing the possible paths you could take.
To avoid becoming overwhelmed, you should begin by performing a thorough assessment of the situation in your company and identifying the biggest security threats you are facing right now.
To begin, you should look at how you store your data, as vulnerabilities in your storage are one of the most popular ways hackers try to exploit. If you identify an issue with how you store data, you might want to consider opting for a proven data center services provider who will ensure that your data is stored according to the best cybersecurity practices.
Having someone knowledgeable and equipped with the right resources on your side can make a huge difference, and data center service providers understand the main threats that business data storage has to deal with.
Implement the Right Company Policies
Having a robust data storage infrastructure is an important part of keeping your data secure. But at the same time, you need to ensure your employees understand how to keep data safe and prevent cyberattacks from taking place.
In many cases, spear-phishing attacks can be even more dangerous, because they target individuals and can be very hard to recognize if your team isn’t prepared in how to notice the signs and take preventative measures. And there are also the more common regular phishing attacks that send out mass emails until someone fills out their information or clicks on a link.
If these types of attacks do take place, it’s a good idea to protect your business with small business liability insurance. This type of insurance can help soften the blow of various accidents and add a layer of protection against cyber threats.
You also need to implement a clear policy across the company, laying out the basic security principles for communication, managing files, working with sensitive information, and everything else that could be used to gain unauthorized access.
Update Your Software
One of the biggest deterrents for hackers is making the breach not worth the effort. If your systems are up to date and protected, that means the easiest vulnerabilities have been eliminated, and that they would have to spend a lot of time trying to find new ones.
Instead, most data security breaches happen when companies fail to update their software to a version that is the most recent and protected from known threats. In fact, many hackers scan entire networks looking for outdated software, as then they know exactly which vulnerabilities to exploit, providing an easy path to accessing your data.
Because of that, keeping your software updated can make a huge difference in protecting your business data from unauthorized access. And the best part is, you don’t even have to worry about manually updating everything if you set up automatic software updates.
Most software solutions allow you to enable automatic software updates, which means that you don’t have to take any active action, and the updates happen on their own whenever they become available.
Use Longer Passwords
Sometimes, something as seemingly simple as the length of your password can make a massive difference in the safety of your business data. Sure, remembering long passwords with various symbols might not be as easy, but the price to pay is more than acceptable when you consider the ramifications of a data leak taking place.
When developing passwords, there are a few simple guidelines that can make it much harder to access vital accounts in your company.
First, you should avoid using easy-to-associate words like your name in it since that’s something that hackers will often try first. You should try to keep the length to at least eight characters, and also make sure to mix and match upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols at random. If you want extra protection, you can always use a password generator.
Make sure you also talk with your employees, encouraging them to come up with high-security passwords and updating them regularly. They should also use different passwords for different accounts and never use the same password for business accounts as they do for social media and other personal ones.
Bottom Line
If you want to keep business data secure, having a structured process is essential. The tips listed above are a good starting point for making it harder to access your data and deterring most threats.
