With recent reports stating that cybercrime is now the most common offence in the UK, cyber security has never been more important, especially for businesses. With cyber-attacks on the rise, all companies must take the necessary steps to protect any databases they maintain, but most importantly the personal data of their customers and employees.
We’ve put together a list of 7 steps you can take to help make your business less vulnerable to cyber criminals.
Strong Passwords
While you may have heard it a thousand times, it is still always the best place to start. Having a strong password and a strong password policy could really save you from an attack. Using a strong password is the easiest and cheapest way to give your cyber security a boost and using 8 characters or more, with a variety of upper- and lower-case characters and symbols can go a long way.
It’s also important to keep your passwords varied. Using the same password for multiple accounts could be massively damaging if one of your accounts were to be hacked it would leave all of your accounts vulnerable.
Purchase anti-virus software
If your computer catches a virus, it’s not as visually catastrophic as you may think, your system won’t immediately begin crashing and then fade to a black screen. The reason it’s so important to invest in software to protect your system from viruses and spyware is because there are a lot of tasks being carried out in the background and that’s where the anti-virus software comes in.
A good anti-virus software will keep your system safe from the threats on both the front end and in the background, while also notifying you of potentially harmful websites and links.
Stay up-to-date
Following on from the previous tip, in order to keep all of your operating systems, software and applications at their strongest, it’s important to keep them up-to-date. Cyber criminals are always looking for new ways to exploit your system, but at the same time, the developers of your system are constantly improving their security through updates and patches.
Ensuring that every system in your company is kept up-to-date on a regular basis could potentially save you from the latest method of attack.
Check all links
One of the most common methods cyber criminals use to access personal data is phishing. You may receive email messages that appear to be from trusted sources or well-known brands that ask for your information or require you to click a link to confirm some of your details, however, by clicking the link you could be directed to an unsafe web location and your data could be vulnerable to an attack.
An easy way to check most links is by hovering your mouse over the link itself and it should show the exact address you will be taken to. Some email addresses may appear legitimate, however, it may just be displaying a fake contact name such as ‘Windows Support’ that if clicked would reveal a ‘011010.net’ email address.
If you’re suspicious, take an extra second to check that the link is secure before clicking through to a dangerous website.