While internet access has brought great benefits to ordinary people and businesses, it’s also increased our awareness of cybersecurity threats. Your network is under attack 24/7 and the only thing protecting your business may be the IT security you have in place.
Here are our top tips for protecting your business and your customers.
Choose The Right Tools
If you are working with a third-party IT service provider, they should be helping you to manage any potential cybersecurity threats. It’s important to have the appropriate tools in place for your business.
- You can better protect data and important company information, for example, by having a separate network for storing and transferring sensitive information.
- You may think that common household anti-virus software is suitable for your business but you really need something a little more sophisticated to meet your cybersecurity requirements.
- Another key area your business must look at is who has access to data. ARM software is designed to manage these issues making sure that sensitive information is only viewed or used by those with the rights to do so.
Train Your Employees
One important thing businesses forget about is training or educating their employees. It’s vital to have a cybersecurity policy in place and to make sure that all staff are aware of it as well as their own personal responsibilities.
Many cybersecurity threats target employees simply because these are highly successful methods of attack. Your staff need to understand the dangers of opening a link in an email, for example, and the damage this can do to your entire network if it contains a virus.
Back Up Regularly
Another big thing that small and medium-sized businesses need to do is back up their data at regular intervals. You may have the best IT system in place but that doesn’t mean you won’t fall victim to a cybersecurity threat at some point. Making sure your data is always backed up properly means you have a better chance of recovering it after an attack and this, in turn, will ensure your business can continue to operate.
The good news is that back up can be automated so there’s no reason why our business shouldn’t be doing it.