Hackers are a serious threat to all businesses today, but only the small ones do not think about online security. As business owners, you always have to be ready for anything. Taking proper measures to ensure online security is a step companies with an online presence should consider.
It is never late or early to get started with such measures. You can start as soon as possible. So do not delay and take action right away. First, you will have some questions to ask yourself before adopting top online security measures.
This article examines eight factors to consider before you adopt security measures for your business or personal network again.
Your Employees Should Be Protected
Your employees should be protected against phishing attacks, the most common cyberattack. Phishing attacks trick people into giving up their passwords, bank account numbers, and other sensitive information.
To protect your employees, you need to educate them about phishing attacks and other cyberattacks and ensure they’re trained to recognize suspicious emails, phone calls, or websites that could lead to a cyberattack.
You also must ensure your employees know what to do if they believe a phishing attack has targeted them. The most important thing is not to open any attachments or links in suspicious emails from unknown senders.
If someone claiming to work for your company sends you an email asking for personal information like your username and password, don’t respond. It could be a scammer impersonating an employee.
If you believe you’ve already been targeted by a phishing attack and have provided personal information that could affect your finances or identity, contact your financial institution immediately. Report the incident as soon as possible after discovering it occurred.
Encrypt Everything
If you’re storing sensitive data on an unencrypted device (such as a laptop), you need to encrypt it immediately. This will prevent unauthorized people from accessing the information if they get hold of it physically — or even if they gain remote access through malware or hacking attempts.
Many different encryption methods are available depending on what kind of data is being stored. For example, some types of encryption work better for financial data than others. That’s because they’re designed specifically for protecting sensitive financial information like credit card numbers and bank account PINs rather than other types of data like private emails or text messages between employees.
Your Cloud Security Must be Flawless
Even if you don’t think your data is sensitive, some people will go to great lengths to get their hands on it. Your online security measures should be in place to keep your data safe from hackers and thieves. If you take the time to secure your cloud, you can reduce the chances of anyone stealing your data or attacking your system.
The best way to protect yourself is to have security measures ready before any attacks happen. You should have a firewall and antivirus software installed on all computers that access your cloud storage and monitor the activity on those computers. This way, if someone tries to break into one of your computers, they won’t reach the rest of your network or steal information from other users.
Ensure that everyone knows how vital cloud security is before they start accessing company data through an external service like Dropbox or Google Drive.
Your Security Measures Should be Compliant
Many businesses misunderstand what compliance means. They think that compliance means complying with the law when in reality, it refers to following best practices and meeting industry standards.
For example, if your business is audited by regulators and they find that you are not following best practice standards, but you are compliant with the law, they will not penalize you for non-compliance with those standards. However, if they find that your security measures are not compliant with industry standards, then they will penalize you for that too!
Ensure Your Employees Understand What They Are Doing
Your employees must understand what they are doing when protecting your business data. Many companies have experienced manyf issues because their employees didn’t know how they were supposed to use the company’s systems and equipment.
Some employees even think they have permission to do things when they don’t have such authority! To prevent these issues in your company, ensure that all your employees understand exactly what they should and shouldn’t do when protecting your business data.
Cost
It’s important to consider the cost before adopting a new security measure. For example, if you’re currently using antivirus software on your computer, it will be cheaper to purchase new software than for a company to hire someone to scan your computer manually.
The cost of implementing top online security measures also includes the time it takes for you to get used to implementing them. For example, if you want to change your password regularly, you must remember your new password first.
If the cost is too high and can’t be justified by the risk of being hacked, then it may be better to lower your security level by using fewer or no security measures.
Consider a Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication is the most secure option. It uses two or more authentication methods, including a password, SMS message, fingerprint scan, or other biometric information.
You should consider using multi-factor authentication if sending sensitive information from your computer or mobile device. For example, if you log in to your email account and want to send an attachment or message with confidential information, you should use multi-factor authentication to ensure that only you can access your accounts.
Keep Your Data Safe
Ultimately, your decisions will depend on key criteria, like the sensitivity of the information you want to protect and how much time/investment you are willing to make. Most people can benefit from adopting at least one or two security measures.