What Your Business Needs to Know About Cybersecurity

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Cybersecurity breaches cost businesses billions of dollars each year. Yet despite this figure, many businesses still don’t take the threat as seriously as they should. It is crucial to know that without the right cybersecurity in place, you could lose money, customers, and even your business as a whole; it is one of the largest threats to any business, big or small. Read on to find out more about why your business needs robust cybersecurity right now. 

Why Is Cybersecurity Needed in Business? 

Every day more and more small businesses are becoming the victim of cyberattacks. This means that a cybercriminal has infiltrated the business’ computer network, and has been able to gain access to emails, sensitive customer information, and banking details to name just a few of the issues this kind of breach could bring. 

If you have good cybersecurity in place, set up by a professional organization such as Iconic IT, you can protect all of these vulnerable areas within your business. 

Why Are Small Businesses Vulnerable to Cyberattacks? 

If you’ve heard news stories about cyberattacks and seen the panic and devastation they can bring, you might have noticed all the businesses involved were large corporations. However, just because these are the stories you hear about, that doesn’t mean that small businesses aren’t in danger, and in fact, cybercriminals often have more success when hacking small businesses than larger ones. This is because:

  • Small businesses don’t hire in-house IT staff (it’s either too expensive or they don’t think it’s necessary)
  • They don’t train staff about online safety (it takes too much time and isn’t seen as a priority)
  • Their computer networks are outdated 
  • There is no backup plan – data is only stored on the network and not in the cloud or on an external hard drive 
  • There is less security in general meaning small businesses are seen as ‘low hanging fruit’ by cybercriminals 

How to Keep Your Small Business Safe From Cybersecurity Threats 

The best way to keep your small business safe from cybercriminals is to have a dedicated IT department – outsourced if necessary – to keep everything up to date and secure. However, there are other things you can do that will help you. 

To begin with, you should carry out a full risk assessment of the potential problems that your current security system could bring about. Hire a consultant to give you pointers as to what needs to be improved, and work on those improvements as quickly as possible. 

Next, you should educate your staff about the dangers of cybercriminals and explain how they can make a difference by being vigilant. As cyber threats change and evolve, this specialist training will need to be updated too.

Your passwords are another excellent way to prevent cybercriminals from accessing your important networks and data. Passwords must be strong, and include letters, numbers, capitalization, and special characters. They must be different for each log in (if a cybercriminal cracked one password and it was the same for everything, they would have instant access to all your data) and changed every six months. You can read our article on tips to generate strong passwords.

Another way to keep your cyber security tight is to have an SSL certificate from Cheapsslshop as it secures travelling information between the server and the user’s browser. The encryption strength avoids third party hackers to sniff ongoing information.

Finally, make sure everything is backed up to the cloud. In the event that your system was hacked you lost your data, your business would be able to continue trading if you can use the information you stored remotely. 

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