If you haven’t taken the proper precautions to safeguard your business and customers, you may never recover should you be hit by a cyber-attack.
1. Acceptance
Unfortunately, the first step is facing up to the cold hard truth of the matter. The odds of your business never getting hit by a cyber-attack are not in your favour. Recent statistics have revealed that 65% of businesses have been hacked or breached. What’s worse is many businesses aren’t even aware of the breach until weeks or even months later.
2. Educate yourself – and your employees
Knowledge of the threat is the next and most important step. Understanding the threat cybercrime poses to businesses of any size. There will be plenty to learn too, from how to safeguard customer data to best practices when it comes to reporting an attack. Educating yourself on cybersecurity might make your head spin, but it’s vital you understand the risk.
3. Install antivirus software
Antivirus software is a vital component for defence against an attack – and for picking up the pieces in the aftermath of an attack. The software is cost-effective (in some cases it’s free), and it will keep your business’ computers safe from an attack and it will protect your economic activity. The software will also prevent your computer from totally shutting down due to a virus, and can even make it possible to restore your computer to a previous version.
4. Strengthen your passwords
Make this a company policy. No memorable words with a number on the end either, it should a random string of numbers, letters and symbols for an added layer of security. Make sure every employee understands that this is the rule. The same should be said of business accounts such as your social media, banking, and any other accounts that require a password.
5. Backup all your information
Should your devices or servers be damaged in a cyber attack or if they suffer a technical failure, you could lose all your vital business
information. If you lose any data, whether it be financial documents or customer information, your reputation could be negatively impacted.
6. You aren’t just defending your customer’s data, you’re protecting your own reputation
Your customers have entrusted you with their personal details. Whether that’s their email address, their financial details or even their home addresses. A cyber breach leading to the theft of those details shows that your business can’t be trusted to safeguard their data which will have a negative impact on your reputation.