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If your business has managed to grow an online presence, then you might understand the threat that comes with it. The more of your business that you take online, the more it's vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. If you're wanting to improve your businesses and its cybersecurity, read on to find out how you can do this.

Invest In Cyber Security Training For Employees

Your employees represent the business and they're also responsible for the daily running of it. This means that they are accessing the web, answering emails and dealing with potentially confidential information. As cyber attacks become more frequent and their approach becomes much more effective, it's important to train your employees with the knowledge of to use the internet safely that won't put them or your business at risk. Most breaches for companies occur when an employee as unknowingly clicked on a link or gone onto a website that may have had a virus on it.

It's certainly more common now that companies are investing the money to give staff the proper training to ensure that they're using it safely. There's plenty of companies about that will offer this training and it might be worth reaching out to your IT support or the company that manages your anti-ware and firewall. Companies like Smartmatic are helping businesses protect their security online from the inside out.

Set Strong Website Filters

One of the security procedures that is worth putting in place are website filters. Like you can do for your own personal computer, setting website filtering will help flag up any suspicious websites that may be compromised in some way, shape or form. These web filtering tools offer real-time monitoring and are worth having when you have a relatively big number of staff in your business. Let’s admit it, we’re not always working every minute of the day during working hours and it’s likely that your staff are probably browsing the web every so often on social websites, news websites etc. At least with this filtering tool, you content block undesired websites and you can use specific words that set off the filter and that is more prone to leading to suspicious websites.

Have A Online Security Policy In Place

With existing staff and new employees, you want to make sure that an online security policy is in place. This will explain how the internet should be used and for what purposes. These are usually called Acceptable Use Policies and they should explain what should happen if you breach the policy and what actions will be taken as a result. This could include stronger filtering for browsing websites or suspension or dismissal if they have willingly tried to create a breach in security. This all may seem quite harsh but its worth having in place for the safety of your business.

Encourage The Use Of Strong Passwords

Passwords are something we all find difficult because ideally, you want to have a complex password for every single piece of software or website that requires a login. However, it’s difficult to do that when you might have so many different logins and we’re only human. It can be hard enough remembering what we did yesterday! So when it comes to encouraging the use of strong passwords. Tell them to form strong passwords but for something that’s relatable to them so that they don’t forget. As long as it doesn’t mention anything related to the company that’s fine. So for example, if an employee was born in 1991 and had a dog called Pepper, they could combine the two to make Pe99er11. That’s much better than using just numbers or letters separately.

Look At Two Factor Authentication

Another level of security protection comes in the form of two-factor authentication. It’s now being rolled out a lot more frequently on a variety of sites and apps that we may already be using in our personal lives. Online banking is one of them as well as Google Mail and social media platforms. Two-factor authentication works by sending a message to your phone when logging In from a device that’s not familiar. You enter your password, it pings across a code or depending on the app, prompts your phone to acknowledge the login. This is certainly useful as an extra layer of protection but it also will flag whenever you're at the risk of becoming compromised. If you get that message and you've not tried to log in yourself, you’ll know that someone has your password.

Backup Your Documents

The only problem about creating data online as opposed to writing it down by hand, is that there's more risk of it becoming compromised or destroyed. Once that document has been deleted or compromised, it's hard to recover the file. However, that's where backups come in useful. You should aim to have a daily backup of your server and have removable hard drives that someone like the operations manager can alternate and take home at the end of the week to make sure that there’s a backup of all work and data outside of the office. This would just be in the rare chance that something happens to the building, e.g a fire or burglary.

Use Encryption and Encrypted USBs

Encrypting your documents is another way to make sure that individual documents are protected. You should also purchase encrypted external devices like USBs and hard drives that are only compatible with your computers. That means no un-encrypted USB sticks or external devices can be recognised in the case where someone might be trying to steal your data internally. Password protecting document is also recommended!

As your business grows and you become more prominent in the online world, it’s important to keep up to date with the latest in security procedures and what’s new out there that can continue to protect you from the dangers of the online world. Take some of these tips and implement them in your own business if you haven’t already.


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