As a business owner, it goes without saying that you want to keep your company’s and your customers’ sensitive data safe from cyber criminals. You are well aware of some of the most infamous and largest security breaches—like the ones that affected Target, Yahoo, Equifax and many others—and you are determined to do all you can to not let your company make this list. Fortunately, there are a number of tangible steps that you can take to safeguard your company and client data:
Keep software updated
Companies that create antivirus software are always looking for ways to improve their products to keep their clients’ data as secure as possible. To take full advantage of all of the latest upgrades, activate automatic updates on all of your antivirus software and any other security programs. Also, if it’s been some time since you have upgraded your software and there is room in your business budget, invest in the latest versions of antivirus applications.
Purchase a data protection plan
One of the many problems with cybercriminals is that once you discover they have attacked your company’s data, they have already done quite a bit of damage. To alleviate this issue you may wish to purchase a robust security plan that will protect your company’s sensitive information and that of your customers, and will immediately alert you if something is remotely suspicious. For instance, it’s worthwhile to invest in identity theft protection that will monitor your accounts 24/7 and help to safeguard your sensitive data, helping to protect it from data breaches. Then, if a cybercriminal does attempt to access account info, you’ll have trustworthy help to remedy the situation.
Turn to the cloud for backups
Instead of having all of your company’s sensitive data on computers, using cloud computing will offer an additional level of security against cybercriminals. Cloud computing offers total protection against DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service. In addition, the security of keeping data in the cloud will help to protect your company’s and your customers’ sensitive information and business transactions and keep everything away from where cybercriminals can access it.
Keep your data encrypted
Cybercriminals are not particularly fussy about the types of data they get a hold of, and they will often go for basic info that is not kept as secure as other data. For instance, everything from bank routing numbers to your Social Security number might be figuratively hanging out in your company’s computers. To keep any and all data safe and secure, make sure that everything is encrypted. Use full disk encryption tools to manage your encrypted computers and offer full key recovery.
Make security part of your every day culture
In order to make sure your company’s data is safeguarded, you cannot handle everything on your own. Make tight security part of your company’s culture and talk to your employees about the aforementioned ways you are keeping data safe, and advise them to be vigilant about their own data and being on the lookout for potential issues.
You are smarter than the hackers
While reading about major security breaches may understandably make you feel nervous about your company’s data, threats and problems are not inevitable. By being as proactive as you can and educating your team about these important issues, your sensitive data is more likely to remain safe and secure.