A total of 500 million records. That’s how much personal and business information was reported stolen in the year 2018. If you think internet security isn’t a big deal, you’re going to be in for a surprise when you’re a victim of cybercrime.
The good news is that there are many cybersecurity tips available that will help you protect your business. Keep reading to learn seven cybersecurity tactics that will fortify your company.
1. Safeguard Your WiFi
Most businesses have WiFi installed on their computer networks these days. With so many people having smartphones and other internet-enabled devices, it would be foolish not to provide that service for the people in your building. Unfortunately, open WiFi hotspots can also cause problems.
You can’t control what happens on third-party devices. When your WiFi is public, you run the risk of one of these devices coming onto your company network with malware installed. If it connects, it has the chance of infecting everything.
You can mitigate this issue by creating separate WiFi networks for your company. Provide one for your employees and guests that are separate from the one that your vital business devices use. Doing this means your sensitive equipment has less chance of being infected when an outbreak occurs.
2. Use Password Managers
Getting your employees to follow a password policy is tough. People have a lot of accounts these days. It’s hard to remember unique passwords for each one of those accounts.
A password manager solves this problem by encrypting and storing all your user credentials. Your team will be able to use a web browser plugin to fill in login forms automatically. You can also use your password manager to share account information between several people.
If that’s not enough security for you, you’ll need to enforce a two-factor authentication protocol for your business. Doing this will force your employees to enter a secondary code after they enter their login credentials. They’ll get their code from an authentication application, email, or text.
3. Secure Your Remote Workers
The way we work has changed a lot in the past few years. A lot of people don’t want to spend their days in the office anymore. This trend has led to the rise of remote working.
The problem is that remote workers still need to access information on your company network. It’s a problem if they do this from a compromised computer or location.
A VPN solves this issue by creating a secure link between an employee’s computer and your office. All internet traffic is encrypted when someone connects to your VPN. If someone is snooping on their traffic, they won’t be able to see what’s happening.
4. Backup Everything
You aren’t out of the woods if you create a secure environment for your business. You still have to deal with the threat of hardware failure and employee mistakes. Without a backup solution, you’re out of luck when this happens.
Any backup solution should provide an off-site storage solution for your essential files. Ideally, you want your files to be backed up automatically on a schedule. Doing things this way means you won’t need to remember to handle the backups yourself.
Once your files are safely stored off-site, it’s just a matter of accessing your backup when you experience a data loss. In most cases, it’s just a matter of logging into an online portal to recover your lost files.
5. Provide Team Training
All it takes is one mistake from your team for your whole company to be affected by a cyberattack. Unfortunately, this is the most likely scenario to play out when a company suffers from an attack.
Your employees are the most significant risk factor when it comes to cybercrime. Even if you lock down your computers, you have to trust that your employees don’t give away sensitive information to hackers on their own.
Criminals do this through social engineering. They pretend to be part of your company or a company you do business with. They use this authority to get people to admit company secrets that can then be used to compromise your network.
You need a training program to help people learn how to spot this practice. You can find this training online or work with a company to provide the training for you.
6. Get a Security Audit
You don’t have to handle the Cybersecurity Tips issues of the internet on your own. Even the best security specialists can make mistakes at times. It pays to have someone take a second look.
You can fortify your small business cybersecurity efforts by contracting with a cybersecurity firm. These businesses have security experts on their staff who will look at your network to try and find issues.
They do this by attacking your company network the way hackers do. Once they finish, they’ll provide a report that details everything wrong that they discover. If needed, they’ll also stick around to help you fix the problems.
7. Install a Hardware Firewall
Knowing the network traffic that goes in and out of your network is essential to keeping your company safe. Unfortunately, it’s hard to do that without a hardware firewall.
Firewalls on an individual computer might be able to keep your workers safe from attack. However, it doesn’t stop someone from attempting to break into your whole company network. A hardware firewall can detect a data breach and prevent it before it gets serious.
A firewall does this by filtering all network traffic on your company network through its software. It compares the traffic to known threats and blocks everything that appears to be a risk. You can also use it to block known malicious websites and keep your team from going to websites inappropriate for work.
These Cybersecurity Tips Will Help Keep Your Company Safe
Not taking cybersecurity seriously is one of the worst mistakes that you can make for your business. Take action today to protect your business from online hackers. The cybersecurity tips above will help you get started.
If you’ve done the work to secure your company from hackers, you can start using tech to improve the workflow of your business. Read more of our blog to learn about the latest tools that will help you get more done.