Hackers are the digital thieves who illegally get into your network to steal valuable information—financial data, passwords, intellectual property, personal information, or whatever crucial information they can get their hands on.
This data is generally used to steal money from accounts or to set up credit cards, and they may even sell data to your competitors.
In fact, all they need is one account or device to inflict damage. On top of that, they are not easy to stop because they are often located outside the country. They use sophisticated technology to resist law enforcement and get massive amounts of information.
According to one survey, 52% of data breaches are hacking. Hackers attack every 39 seconds, accounting for 2,244 times a day. Another scary finding is that hackers steal 75 records every second.
Don’t think that your business is too small to be attacked. Small businesses are always on the radar of cybercriminals due to outdated security systems and lack a cybersecurity team.
Fortunately, you can minimize or eliminate the risk by taking precautions.
Here are some security tips to protect your business data from hackers.
Be Careful with Your Password:
Creating a strong password may seem an essential piece of advice, but the fact is that not all users are serious about their passwords. Most users still create secure passwords like ABCD, 1234, or their date of birth.
Such passwords are low hanging fruits for today’s sophisticated cybercriminals. Therefore, you need to create a strong password and change them frequently.
A strong password is a combination of alphabets, numbers, and special characters. Don’t use the same password for all accounts.
Work With the Right ISP:
Make sure to choose the right Internet Service Providers or ISP beyond their cost and speed.
The market is stacked with plenty of ISPs. Go for the one that comes with built-in security features. ISPs have a significant impact on cybersecurity because of their prominent position in the network.
Limit or Block Access to Unnecessary Sites:
Restricting access to certain websites minimizes the risk of a security breach, so it’s the right thing to make sure only the authorized users get access to specific data.
Similarly, blocking specific sites from being viewed reduces the risk of viruses and spyware injecting sites from being accessed within your network.
Therefore, take the necessary measures to block malicious sites and make sure your security tools like antivirus are upgraded.
Use Up to Date Security Programs:
The simplest way to protecting your data from hackers is to update your security software. The constant updates might seem to hassle, but you should stick to them.
Using dated software can increase the risk of being hacked. Upgrades are essential to improve the efficiency of the security tools against the latest malware. Besides, you need to back up your data at least once a week.
Protect Your Network:
With an unsecured Wi-Fi network, you are asking for trouble. Hackers utilize a technique known as wardriving, and it’s quite lethal. Wardriving is when cybercriminals equip their cars with high powered antennas and drive around scanning for the vulnerable network. When these hackers find a soft target, all of your passwords, finances, and data are on the risk.
Therefore, make sure to protect your Wi-Fi network and rely strictly on wired networks.
Educate Your Employees:
Employee negligence is one of the factors leading to cyber-attacks. For example, your employees can use weak passwords or leave their devices containing relevant data exposed. Or they may open emails that contain malicious links.
This way, they are making your data prone to attack unintentionally. Therefore, you need to educate your employees on cybersecurity. Besides, it would be best if you created formal company data policy, setting acceptable and prohibited online activities for employees. Their email access to personal smartphones via the company’s Wi-Fi should be restricted.
Conducting regular cybersecurity workshops are also an effective way to keep your staff educated on cybersecurity. If you are small enterprises, you can organize these events together with other local small businesses. Moreover, organizing cybersecurity workshops for your clients can be a great branding opportunity.
Practicing cybersecurity on a daily bases strengthens the security of your organization, eliminates the risk of hackers, and makes your business’s landscape safe and sound.
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