There are plenty of hackers and other bad actors who specialize in targeting businesses. These often turn a profit by either selling business data in the black market or holding a company’s data up for ransom. In the latter case, hackers will copy the files, delete the originals, and then ask for a cash payment in exchange for returning those crucial files.
The good news is that while there are many complex ways to crack computer security out there, most-bad actors aren’t that smart or capable. The majority of cyber-attacks are low-skill attacks, which you can avoid by following a few simple precautions.
5 Cybersecurity Tips to Protect Your Business Accounts
1 – Practice email safety
Email is a cybersecurity nightmare, and it is still one of the leading causes of data leaks in the world today. Modern email spam filters help to limit some of that danger, but clicking on a link or downloading a file you received from an email address outside of your organization is still a huge risk.
One way to minimize the risk of an email-related data leak is to offer email safety training to employees and run occasional safety drills. Such drills can include sending employees suspicious and phishing-like emails to see who is still being careless with what they open and click on.
2 – Limit employee access
All members of the organizations should only be able to access the files they need. And they should only have permission to alter those files to a reasonable extent. For example, a cashier creating a report on the day’s sales shouldn’t be able to edit or delete entries made to last year’s sales reports. And no one should be able to delete thousands of files in a day with no questions asked.
Why? Two reasons. First, it limits the scope of human error, as limited access ensures that fewer people edit or delete crucial files by accident. Second, it limits how far a hacker can go by compromising a single employee’s account.
Limiting access like this may sound complicated on paper, but most cloud platforms already have tools to help limit which accounts can do what. And you can always enlist the help of an IT security services provider to help you sort this out.
3 – Keep devices updated
Keep your organization’s computers and mobile devices updated to the latest security patches. Remember: by the time a manufacturer notices a security flaw, that flaw might have been in place for years. And knowledge of the flaw only becomes more widespread once it has been fixed, making devices that haven’t been updated even more vulnerable.
4 – Enable two-factor authentication
Passwords have long been a major cybersecurity weak spot, to the point where it is not uncommon for modern tech companies to issue employees physical keys or badges that they need to use to access company files. You don’t have to go that far for your business, but making sure your business accounts require two-factor authentication via phone to log in is still a good idea.
Two-factor authentication ensures that even if a user’s password is compromised, a bad actor won’t be able to log in to their account.
5 – Get an antivirus
This is an obvious step but still a crucial one. Making sure all your business devices have anti-virus software can do wonders for increasing the security of your network.
I hope you enjoyed this article on 5 cybersecurity tips to protect your business, let me know if you’d recommend any more.
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