Many companies today do business online. The online platform flattens the playing ground for small and established businesses giving them an equal chance to woo and reach out to target customers. However, taking your business online presents new challenges, especially with hackers looking for ways to exploit unsuspecting business owners. Very few small companies however invest in cybersecurity, making them targets for cyberattacks.  According to a report released by Verizon Data Breach Investigations, more than 58% of all reported cyber-attacks in 2020 targeted small businesses. This is one of the reasons to take on measures to improve your online security. Read more about cyber security in this blog from Barclay Simpson.

Outlined below are a few tips/steps to help keep cyberattacks at bay.

1. Enable Automatic System and App Updates

Almost all software developers release system/app updates that help fix glitches and patch up security flaws in them. That said, your business is safer on the most current app/operating system. Enabling automatic software updates means you will never miss out on the latest security patches and updates, hence a more secure operating system and app environment. Most operating systems and apps allow you to check for updates manually too. Most of these developers will notify you whenever a new update is released. Failure to install most of these updates only leaves your system vulnerable and exposed, one of the reasons you might want to enable/allow automatic software updates.

2. Update Your Privacy Settings

Do you have a unique password for each of your email addresses and other critical online accounts?  Are the passwords simple and easy to guess?  While you may want to use the same password across all accounts or wish to use a simple one that you can remember easily, doing so only increases the chances of getting hacked. Thus, it would be advisable to use a unique and hard-to-guess password in each of your emails and sensitive accounts. Experts recommend using a mix of letters (lower and upper case), numbers, and special characters in your passwords for enhanced security. You might also want to enable two-step verification (text code verification) if willing to take it a notch higher.

3. Keep Sensitive Data Protected

The introduction of new GDPR in 2018 has seen companies take data protection more seriously.  The increased risk of data breaches and hackers using every trick up their sleeve to access and infiltrate your company makes it even more critical to have every bit of data encrypted and kept in a safe place.

Even the slightest of data breaches can see your company lose millions of monies in penalties. According to Security Intelligence, 2019 alone saw companies lose more than $3.92 million due to data breaches. Ensuring your business is GDPR compliant, however, reduces the risk of such, hence crucial for all businesses. One way to do this is to enable multiple security levels for various forms of data, all of which can only be accessed via a centralized entry point.

4. Promote A Culture Of Security In Your Business

All security measures would be useless if your employees weren’t sensitized to the same.  This is why you need to have all employees trained on data security and how they can help prevent cyberattacks and intrusions. Encourage all employees to attend workshops and training on data security and reward all those who successfully complete the training. Your employees will thus be proactive whenever at the office or accessing files from the internet.