In the last decade, several small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have emerged. These business owners think that cyberattacks can’t affect them.
They are also under an illusion that cyber security issues should only be dealt with when their company grows and they have a larger budget. There are various security risks including phishing, advanced malware, ransomware for which you can be an easy target. Reportedly 60 percent of the small businesses have been a target for some sort of cyber-attack.
To be honest, no individual or business is completely immune to cybercrime irrespective of the company size. Reports state that these small- to medium-sized businesses are an easy target for cybercriminals. They know that SMB does not consider cybersecurity to be a priority whereas larger corporations have dedicated security systems. So if you think that putting efforts to strengthen the security of your business is a waste of time, you should rethink it!
Fortunately, there is a bundle of tips you can follow to protect yourself and your organization even if you have a tight budget and resources. Here are some of the things that you should keep in mind while carving out the security aspect of your business.
Educate
Cybercrime affects millions of people worldwide in some form or another. The reason for these cyber attacks is not that the criminals are very tech-savvy. These attacks happen because of ignorance- people are not aware of these threats and attacks.
To cope up with these attacks, you should consider educating your employees all about cybersecurity. Workshops can be organized to make them aware of cybercrime.
They should be encouraged to use complex passwords, and to be vigilant if they receive any suspicious emails. You should deploy strategies for threats such as phishing strategies and make sure all employees abide by them. For instance, you can make a command that no employees will ask for any private information via email.
Use a VPN
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a tool that acts as a tunnel to connect the private network of an organization with a public network. It also encrypts the data entering and leaving the network. Hence, all employees can send and receive data across shared or public networks without fearing being a victim of attacks such as spoofing, man-in-the-middle. A VPN lets you be anonymous and prevents any spying on you. It also lets you hide your geographical location and access the internet from a different location. This is extremely useful if you want to see the real search results from a particular country.
Read: 5 best Browsers with Built-in VPN
Install an HTTPS certificate
You need to have an HTTPS certificate for your website. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is an encryption certificate that helps you encrypt the incoming and outgoing traffic on your site. This certificate also helps you protect personal and financial data such as credit/debit card information in the payment gateways of your customers. This certificate also has other benefits as well: Customers are more likely to trust a website with an HTTPS certificate, and search engines also rank such websites higher thus boosting your marketing efforts.
Read: Free SSL or HTTPS for custom domains is now available for your blog hosted on Blogger
Protect critical assets
Apart from having an HTTPS certificate, you also need to install other protection features to protect your other business assets, like social media accounts, websites, and logins information. You should enable two-factor authentication on your social media accounts which asks you to enter a real-time OTP when you try to log in. Suppose somebody wants to hack your company’s social media account he cannot log in until he enters the 6 digit passcode.
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Enforce strong passwords
Creating strong and complex passwords is one such tip that you should always follow. This is such a crucial step to ensure security but it is more often overlooked. Strong and complex passwords act as a barrier against the criminal. However, people do not realize its importance. According to the survey done by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre stated that over 2.3 million accounts worldwide were hacked by entering the password “123456”.
Read: How To Password Protect Folders And Files On Mac?
Conclusion
These are some of the important security measures that you should consider implementing to increase the security of your business and its assets.
Following these best practices can help you devise a plan for cybersecurity within your organization. The first step for securing your business should be to make your employees aware of these threats.
Read: How To Fix Google Chrome Crashes On Mac?
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