Cyber attacks can be a significant threat to business owners, no matter how large your company is. You’ll need to ensure you have good cyber security in place.
We put together this guide full of tips for improving cyber security with business owners in mind. You can make your company much more secure by using them. So, let’s begin!
1. Use Professional Services
In the modern business environment, where cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the importance of robust cyber security measures cannot be overstated.
While the above tips provide a solid foundation for enhancing your company’s cyber security, partnering with professional cyber security services can take your security posture to the next level.
These services offer expertise and resources that may be beyond the reach of many businesses, especially small to medium-sized enterprises.
By leveraging their specialized knowledge and cutting-edge technologies, professional cybersecurity firms can help identify vulnerabilities, thwart potential threats, and respond more effectively to incidents.
For example, GuidePoint Security offers comprehensive cybersecurity solutions tailored to businesses’ unique needs.
By collaborating with a trusted partner like that, companies can benefit from a proactive and strategic approach to cyber security, ensuring that their data, assets, and reputation are well-protected against the evolving landscape of cyber threats.
Incorporating professional cyber security services into your strategy enhances your defensive capabilities and provides peace of mind, knowing that experts in the field fortify your business.
This level of support is crucial in today’s digital age, where the cost of a breach can extend far beyond financial loss, impacting customer trust and long-term viability.
2. Train Employees on Cyber Security Basics
When increasing your cyber security, you’ll want to start with your employees. Employees trained in keeping their data and your company’s data safe are essential. You’ll want to hold training courses occasionally to keep your team current.
Here’s what you’ll need to make sure to train your employees on:
- Being able to effectively spot phishing attacks.
- Knowing how to turn on encryption features on their devices.
- Using good safety practices on the internet.
- Using two-factor authentication.
- Understanding what company data is sensitive and shouldn’t be shared with others.
Keeping employees informed is the best defense against cyber security attacks, including devastating data leaks. It’s much easier to prevent data theft than to recover from it after the fact, so you’ll want to spend a lot of time on training.
3. Use Reliable Anti-Virus Software
You’ll also want to ensure you have good anti-virus software on your company devices. Viruses not only slow down devices and make them frustrating for your employees to use, but they also can leak sensitive information. So, choosing reliable anti-virus software will save your company money in the long run.
That means you’ll need to update the anti-virus software often, too. If it falls behind, malware could still slip through the cracks in the program.
There are many different anti-virus software programs. Before choosing, consider what you want from the service, how much it costs, and what would work best on your devices.
Some of the best options for small businesses include Malwarebytes, ESET PROTECT Advanced, and Webroot Business Endpoint Protection. These programs are easy to use and help keep your business devices clean.
4. Secure and Backup Your Company Data
Next, you must back up your company’s data often. You should save it in multiple places so you won’t have to start your company from scratch again, even if one of the backups is lost or destroyed.
It’s a good idea to back up important data in the cloud and on SD cards. You’ll also need to have policies in place restricting who can access those storage devices. Dropbox and Google Drive are the best cloud options since you can choose who can access what information.
Overall, you need to have plenty of backups. Without them, your company would take huge losses from a cyber security attack.
5. Protect Networks With a Firewall
Business owners must ensure their companies have good firewalls to protect their networks. Firewalls protect your company’s computers and other devices from viruses and hackers. It monitors data going through the network and reports unusual happenings to your cyber security team, allowing you to stop cyberattacks before they happen.
The firewall will also monitor device traffic for you and stop anything suspicious. Since many people can use a company network simultaneously, this automatic monitoring is beneficial.
You’re also putting your company at risk when you don’t use a firewall, so you must set one up as soon as possible to enhance security.
6. Improve and Update Company Passwords
Leaked or easy-to-guess passwords can create massive weaknesses in your company’s security. You’ll want to make sure that your employees know how to create strong passwords and that they update them often.
You can also set up passwords that expire for company accounts, ensuring that your employees occasionally update to a new password. The employees should be unable to enter their old passwords, further enhancing security.
Placement:
You’ll want to encourage your team to use two-factor authentication, also called 2fa, from there. 2fa requires another method of identification to access an account. So, even if an employee’s password gets leaked, it won’t cause a security breach for the company. This feature also gives the employee enough time to update their password.
7. Use Encrypted Devices Only
If you want to improve your company’s cybersecurity, you must ensure that you and everyone else at your business use encrypted devices only.
Encrypted devices are incredibly secure. No one except the user can read the data on them. So, if a device does get hacked or lost, other people won’t be able to access sensitive data from it.
Even smartphones should be encrypted if they connect to your network. According to IT Pro, the best-encrypted phone is the Purism Librem 5. Other outstanding options include the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max and the Google Pixel 6.
Using only encrypted devices at your business can drastically reduce the risk of security breaches, so make sure all of your team is on the same page. You may need to set policies regarding unencrypted devices on the network to prevent security threats.
Overall, you’ll need to check that everyone’s using encrypted devices. Your IT or cyber security teams can help you with this process.
8. Limit Ability To Install Software
You’ll also want to set up security features that prevent employees from installing software on their work devices. You wouldn’t want them to accidentally install malware that leaks data or causes other security risks.
Employees should only have access to the specific software they need for work and not be allowed to install any additional software. The more software employees can install, the more likely they are to download something malicious to their devices.
If they need something for their work, encourage them to talk to you and the cyber security team about it.
In short, limiting the ability to install software on work devices drastically decreases the risk that the device gets a virus.
Focus On Improving Cyber Security
Business owners need to focus on improving cyber security. A data breach could cost thousands of dollars and look bad for your company, so you’ll need to avoid it. The above tips should help you a lot!