Cyber security breaches are common in small businesses that have access to sensitive and confidential client information. This can be anything to credit card details to transaction histories which are quite tempting to hackers. The good news is you can protect your clientele by following some simple tips to strengthen your cyber security:
Protect your router
Wireless routers are very easy to hack into especially if their admin password is not changed regularly. Even an inexperience hacker can hack your business’s WIFI from 100 yards away. Protect your router by changing its passwords frequently and hide the SSID or the Service Set Identifier.
Protect your Data
To ensure that your online business data is safe from unauthorized access. Do this by conducting an audit of that data and determine which information should remain public and/or hidden. The data that needs to be hidden should be guarded closely and the data that is not as important and will not hurt business can have minimum security measures in place.
Then determine which data is critical to your business and can impact it negatively if it is exposed to outsiders. This should be guarded with stringent
security measures and should have minimum access authorizations.
Strengthen access control
Your website’s admin level is the easiest way for hackers to learn everything you don’t want them to see or want to expose. To prevent it from being breached, create user names and passwords that are case sensitive and cannot be guessed.
Plus, limit the number of times anyone can log in with incorrect credentials and also with password resets. Protect your email by encrypting it and don’t send new passwords to employees through it in case it is also hacked.
Keep systems updated
Updates can be expensive but they are worth every penny and can save you massive losses down the line. Most businesses fail to install updates as soon as they come leaving their systems vulnerable to more sophisticated attacks. The more you delay those updates, the more vulnerable your website will be.
Hackers network extensively and it doesn’t take them long to find out which company has not updated its systems. If one of them knows your systems are weak, the word will spread and you will have a huge data breach on your hands.
Change passwords regularly
Most people keep the passwords they can remember or have always had because they think changing it is a hassle. This is what hackers count on especially in small businesses. Constantly rotating passwords can help you remain one step ahead of them. Plus, make sure that all online passwords are also changed along with it.
However, if your password is strong enough you may not need to change it as frequently. It should be case sensitive, contain letters as well as numbers and not be based on an event.
Use encryption
Make sure that all of your hard drives are encrypted so that no one can steal data from them even if they take the entire computer with them. To access that data they will need to enter a long and very complicated password to unlock the hard drives along with another password to enter the system proper.
This long process can discourage even seasoned hackers from trying to access computers that have encrypted hard drives and software.
Behavioral Based Safety Certification Training program
Employees can be encouraged to adopt simple cyber security measures if your business has a strong and cooperative work culture. The
Behavioral Based Safety Certification program by 360training.com can help them learn how to work with each other for the betterment of the organization.
Learned behaviors are often the biggest obstacles when it comes to meeting safety goals that can protect a company. With safety training, they can work together to prevent security breaches and remain on the lookout for breaches.
Hackers may not just want to steal data – some may try to ruin your business’s hard earned reputation or post malicious messages on your behalf that can put off shareholders and investors. Prevent those incidents from occurring by training your employees to be on the lookout and remain proactive regarding organizational security. Sign up today and contact us for any queries.
