Why Security Should Be Top of Mind When Creating a Business
Businesses of all sizes are so complex and time-consuming that many owners forget what matters the most – to protect their organizations and make them safe both online and offline. For some reason, a lot of entrepreneurs think that security breaches don’t happen or at least don’t threat their companies in particular.
It is, of course, a terrible mistake as almost 60% of companies have experienced security incidents such as DDoS attacks, phishing, and social engineering attacks. You should be smarter than the average entrepreneur and do all it takes to make the operations impenetrable.
In this post, we will show you the facts and stats surrounding business security and highlight a few techniques to keep your organization perfectly safe.
The Basics of Business Security
Data breaches take place way too frequently, especially in the digital universe. According to the report, hackers attack people and organizations every 39 seconds or approximately 2.2 thousand times a day. In such circumstances, it is important to learn which documents and features require protection.
Jake Gardner, a security specialist at assignment services, gives us a whole list of sensitive business-related files:
- Digital information such as passwords, login details, etc.
- Tax documents
- Financial documents such as balance sheets
- Business plans and operational reports
- Company bylaws and operating agreements
- Funding documents
- Board minutes
- Real estate files
- Anything else you might consider vital for your company like for example if you are an ad tech company, a list of ad ops tools and resources that you don’t want your competitors to see
Security incidents often target small and medium-sized businesses exactly because their owners or managers believe that hackers target only enterprise-level organizations. They could not be more wrong since studies reveal the opposite trends:
- Almost 45% of cyber attacks target small businesses, while 60% of those organizations go out of business within six months of a security breach.
- There was a 424% increase in authentic and new breaches of small businesses in 2018, but 83% of them lack the funds to deal with the repercussions of a cyber attack.
- Each month, nearly five thousand websites get infected with the formjacking code.
- 95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error.
The figures are mind-boggling, but what can you do to prevent the consequences of a hacker attack and other security breaches? We have prepared several suggestions for you, so let’s check them out in the next chapter.
8 Ways to Make the Business Safe and Sound
There are many different ways to protect a new business and prevent fraudulent activities against your company, but we want to focus on the simplest and most efficient solutions. Here are eight techniques to maintain organizational security:
- Monitor the business credit
A newly-found company almost always has a business credit score that you may or may not utilize to the fullest extent immediately. Many scammers are trying to figure out the basic information about these companies and make use of the business credit without getting noticed.
This is why you should protect business-related information and make them available for authorized personnel only. Besides that, you should pay close attention to the business credit score and look for possible changes. In case you notice something unknown or unusual, there is a chance that you are facing scammers.
- Use strong passwords
Are you familiar with cybersecurity concepts such as “qwerty” or “123456?” If yes, then you probably know that we are talking about some of the worst passwords a person or organization can use in everyday activities on the Internet.
On the other side, you can prevent the vast majority of cybersecurity incidents simply by using stronger passwords. The idea is to combine letters, numbers, and other symbols to maximize the complexity and impenetrability of your security word.
Business analysts at the assignment help and essay service recommend another easy solution and that is to use a tool like Password Generator. Such platforms will help you to create a perfect password that no hacker can recognize and misuse against your company.
- Train your staff
We guess you are not running a one-person business, so make sure to keep your team members informed about possible security breaches and the ways to halt such incidents. Try to do it more than once because the so-called “set it and forget it” formula can hardly work in the long run.
Apart from onboarding instructions, you should also organize annual meetings to update employees about the latest security procedures. Of course, you should highlight the importance of passwords and remind workers to stick to longer and stronger password solutions exclusively.
- Find reliable antivirus software
Another fundamental advice is to find a reliable antivirus program and use it to protect your organization. There are hundreds of more or less interesting options available online, so you’ll need to analyze them in order to identify the best antivirus for your business. Some features to look for include:
- Price: Although there are solutions that are both cheap and reliable, don’t expect to get top-notch protection free of charge.
- System load: Use a platform that won’t slow down your system in general.
- Simplicity: Try to find an intuitive program that you can figure out simply and effortlessly.
- Delete unused tools and accounts
Lots of hackers target long-forgotten tools and accounts because administrators don’t pay attention to it anymore. In such circumstances, obsolete accounts and programs represent easy targets for skilled scammers. If you want to get rid of this threat, you should delete or uninstall apps, programs, and tools that you are not using anymore.
- Update programs regularly
A big percentage of cybersecurity vulnerabilities can be solved successfully if you keep all of the tools and programs up to date. According to the report, almost 50% of WordPress website security incidents happen due to outdated systems.
What does it tell you?
Well, it means that you should pay attention to the latest versions of all the major platforms you are using. All it takes is to click the “Update” button as soon as you spot it. Keep in mind that most of the modern systems function automatically, so you won’t have to do anything else to make the business impenetrable.
- Conduct regular data backups
With everything you’ve seen (and hopefully done) so far, the business you are running should not be in jeopardy. However, there is always a small margin of error and you should be ready to deal with possible data breaches in a way that keeps the business perfectly functional without interruptions.
Michael Jacobsen, a resume writer who specializes in IT positions, claims that each organization should conduct regular data backups: “This is a critical cybersecurity milestone because it allows you to keep working even if hackers steal or lock the basic business files. You will have everything waiting for you in another data library, so you won’t have to worry about data losses or ransomware requests.”
- Keep your hard copies safe as well
The last suggestion on our list is to keep the hard copies of your documents perfectly safe as well. Keep it all locked and far away from unauthorized personnel. Besides that, you should make sure that the storage premises are protected against fire and floods. If this sounds like a little bit too much, keep in mind that the entire business might be at stake in case you lose or destroy hard copies of your documents.
Conclusion
Security is one thing that often gets neglected in the sea of other responsibilities, but diligent business managers and owners must know how important it is to keep their organizations safe and sound around the clock.
In this post, we showed you why security should be top of mind when creating a business and discussed eight ways to protect a newly-found organization. Remember our tips and make sure to use them – it could save you from trouble a lot sooner than you think!
Justin Osborne is a writer at coursework writing service and assignment help online, he loves to share his thoughts and opinions about education, writing and blogging with other people on different blogs and forums. Currently, he is working as a content marketer at essay help and college paper reviews.
