Why Every Small Business Should Care About Cyberattacks
Business owners often do not suspect the dangers of a wrong approach to data security. In the article, we will explain. The more IT solutions a business implements, the greater the likelihood that it will face the destructive power of cyber-attacks. In the event of a successful hack, attackers can obtain all the confidential information of the company and its customers, as well as disable the company’s systems, thereby suspending its work. The only way to avoid catastrophic consequences is to detect vulnerabilities in time. why you should not neglect the data security and how to protect your business from hacker attacks.
The more IT solutions are implemented in business, the greater is the chance that it will face the destructive power of cyberattacks. In case of a successful hacking attack, hackers can obtain all the confidential information of the company and its customers, as well as disable the company’s systems, thereby suspending its work.
Underestimating the risk of cyberattacks and the extent of the damage means exposing the business to danger. The only way to avoid catastrophic consequences is to detect vulnerabilities in the right time.
Business is not attacked by robots, but by real professionals: there is no single algorithm or antidote for 100% neutralizing consequences of cyber criminals’ activity. Data protection is not only a headache for the information security department in your office. This is one of the main business risks. Therefore, we will share with you reliable methods that will help you protect your business from cyberattacks and prevent the leakage of valuable data in the future.
Use licensed software
You should use licensed software and regularly install the updates. There are vulnerabilities in any software, and developers regularly test it for errors and issue the necessary patches. But pirated programs are deprived of this advantage without mentioning, that the pirated versions may initially contain malicious code.
Install antivirus software
Data leakage can occur due to the lack of antivirus software on your computers. You need to configure data protection, use a firewall and install the necessary updates from the official website of the supplier in order to protect your business from cyber-attacks. For example, MacKeeper is one of the most reliable antivirus utilities, as it helps to quickly detect viruses on MacBooks and remove them.
Protecting your system with .htaccess files
Another reliable way is to protect your site and system with .htaccess files. These files help to set up and improve the security of your website. You can install many additional configurations that will help to build a system of protection against hacking using .htaccess fales. Also, they make editing system parameters safer for you, because this happens without affecting the main configuration file. It means that a system crash due to the deletion of the system file is almost impossible.
Using SSL
SSL protocol is another indispensable tool in securing the website of your business. A secure connection is established between the server and the user’s browser with the help of this SSL protocol. Information is transmitted and encoded over HTTPS. Hacking a site becomes much more difficult, because only a special key can decrypt the encoding, which hackers bring a lot of difficulties and complicates the task.
Countering Phishing
Phishing is a type of fraud, when an attacker, using a variety of tricks, encourages the user to voluntarily provide personal data. Security training will not be superfluous, where each employee will learn how to recognize and prevent phishing attempts.
Minimize the use of mobile devices
Tablets and smartphones are no less susceptible to attacks. Companies that allow employees to use mobile devices for work are regularly attacked. This is an occasion to develop safety rules that prohibit working with strategically important information from a smartphone.
Use 2FA (two-factor authentication) to access important data
Two-factor authentication is a double protection: first, the system asks you for a password, and then sends a confirmation code to another device (for example, a text message to your smartphone). Even if a cybercriminal picks up the right password, he will not be able to log in without access to the second device.
Password strength control
81% of data leakages happen due to password cracking. Therefore, your team must know how strong and weak passwords look. It will not be superfluous to install password managers which will automatically generate and save strong passwords.
Data backup
Cloud services allow you to store a backup copy of data outside the workplace and gadgets. For example, if you back up your Mac to iCloud you’ll be able to access it at any time from any device, even if data on the working device is lost.
Conclusion
The best approach to cyber-attacks is not only knowing what to expect from cyber criminals, but also a willingness to respond and even predict their actions. You need to monitor the development of data security technologies and keep up with the time. It will also be helpful to regularly work on bugs together with specialists, especially if a cyber-attack did occur.
