Infographics: Don’t Let Your Business Become the Next Cyber-Victim

September 26, 2019

How to Beef Up Your Systems

How is the cybersecurity for your business? Does it start and end at the installation of some anti-virus program and passwords for when you log into the system? That’s not a bad start, but it’s also not the best way to protect your business from a cyber-attack.

There are a lot of avenues that hackers can use to breach your system, and some of them you’ve probably never considered. So, listen up, in this article, we’ll explain to you how you can beef up your security and make your business less vulnerable to attacks.

But Who’d Want to Attack My Business?

If you’re a small business, you might not think that anyone would be interested in hacking your computer systems. But you should be concerned – according to the research conducted to create the infographic below, small businesses are the targets for close to half the cybercrimes.

And the consequences of such an attack can be serious – around 60% of small businesses shut down after being hacked. So, the stakes are very high.

You might not think that anyone would be interested in hacking your business, but there are a lot of different motives for cybercrimes.[irp]

- It could be a disgruntled ex-employee wanting to harm your business reputation

- You could be the victim of a ransomware attack. In this instance, the hacker takes over your system. You’ll have to pay them a fee if you want full access restored.

- They could be looking for information. Even if you’re a small business, with a couple of hundred clients, you have a lot of data on record. That’s a goldmine for criminals.
- It could just be a malicious person who wants to destroy your system for the fun of it.

Basically, you need to shift your view from, “Who’d want to attack my business?” to, “Who’s going to try to their luck?” Take a lead out of the scout’s motto and be prepared, just in case.

For starters, install good anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-ransomware and be sure to update them regularly. How often should you update them? At least once a day.
Secondly, make sure that all systems that could grant access to yours are password-protected. Every computer linked to your business, or any computer that may be used for business purposes, should require password access at the very least. Biometric access is even better if the budget allows. Don’t forget to secure your Wi-Fi connection as well.
Thirdly, ensure that passwords are carefully chosen. A simple, four-digit password is easy to remember, but also easy enough to crack. Make sure that the passwords are more difficult to crack by making them longer, and using a mixture of special, alpha-numeric, and upper- and lower-case letters. You can also set up your system to allow access through a randomly-generated key or biometric scan if you’re concerned about forgetting the password. [irp]
Next up, don’t record the password anywhere, and make sure that it is random enough that no one will guess it easily.
It’s important to limit access to the system. Give employees only enough access to perform their jobs and don’t allow remote access unless it is absolutely essential. Do make sure that physical access to the computers by unauthorized people is kept to a minimum. Also, when an employee leaves, revoke their access immediately.
It is very helpful to increase your employees knowledge on how phishing attacks work. You should organize a security awareness training as this is proved way to protect your corporate network.
Lastly, consider monitoring systems that allow you to check employee access periodically. You need to know what your employees are doing on the system to reduce potential issues with authorized access being abused.

Beefing up your security makes sense for any business that relies on a computer system. No matter how small the business, you could be a target, so be sure to keep on the alert.