If you receive any amounts of payments or make transfers online, protecting your business should be an inherent part of your daily activities. Today, digital information theft is the most reported fraud and is bigger than ever.
Hackers, identity thieves, and scammers now prey on businesses, both large (ones with a lot of valuable information) and small ones that are vulnerable and defenseless.
Breaches, including spam, cybersecurity, and computer crashes, expose all types of businesses to insurance claims, lawsuits, and cash flow fluctuations, among other factors that could quickly damage the operations of your enterprise or wipe it out completely.
In this regard, several practices can be employed to safeguard your business from most of the online threats.
Use A Virtue Private Network (VPN) On Public WI-FI
One good thing about online businesses is that employees can work from anywhere, whether at the beach or coffee shop, among other places of choice. The biggest concern with using public WI-FI is the ease of hackers on the same network.
Hackers can use any software that enables them to monitor traffic and the login details of users connected to the same Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi is a major security risk, meaning that your emails and all other details can be accessed in plain text.
Therefore, it is crucial that every employee uses a VPN while working away from the office. A VPN is an app that can be installed on devices to encrypt your internet connection and protect your business.
Use Encryption Technology On All Your Devices
Encryption is the process of changing data so that it is unreadable except by the people processing special knowledge, also known as a key. This technology allows you to safeguard your data securely by making it inaccessible.
You must protect customer data such as names and credit card numbers, given that penalties can be massive. Should you choose a self-hosted platform, ensure you have an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate.
While governments use it to secure classified data, businesses protect their corporate secrets and guard against identity theft.
Choose A Secure Hosting Service
Every successful business has a professional website. However, choosing the wrong web hosting company to secure your wireless networks won’t be saved by powerful features or a great design.
All your online platforms must be hosted by a reliable, PCI-compliant web hosting company. This is the only way to ensure that your payment processes are secure and can’t be accessed by hackers.
As much as free hosting sounds good, do not consider this option for your business. Not only will you have shared server space and low speeds, but you will also be exposed to the risk of insecurity.
It might be more beneficial for your business to choose a web hosting service provider that can offer your online business an SSL certificate. The certificate ensures that the communication between your site and browsers is encrypted.
Enable 2-Factor Authentication
In addition to using unique and strong passwords on all your online platforms, the other top line of defense is enabling 2FA.
With 2-factor authentication, you must use a unique code each time you log in. This means that even if a hacker gets your login details, they will not be able to access your data without your authenticator app code.
If you use Gmail, for instance, for most of your accounts, a hacker will access your Twitter, Facebook, and other online accounts using the password reset feature.
Back-Up Your Data
Safety in every business is never a certainty, no matter the measures taken. Backing up your corporate information is a good place to start. Doing so makes it easy for you to recover if your firm succumbs to a cyber-attack.
Backing up your business information means you can still recover lost data when hackers succeed in launching a cyber-attack. Disperse this data across different storage systems, and remember to stick it in a hidden USB stick. Implement cloud storage services.
Educate Your Employees
At least 60 percent of all security breaches occur internally. Employees should be allowed to use only the software needed for their activities and should not access all the company’s data systems.
Before installing software on their individual office computers, they should get permission first. Employees should be educated on security issues regardless of the size of the business.
Even if your business has the best security software, it won’t work if your employees are not educated on cybersecurity.
They may not be aware that links and emails can cause severe damage to the company. Train them on the importance of strong passwords and talk about anti-virus programs that can be used to clean their devices.
It might be easy to start an online business, but making it sustainable and profitable can be complicated. Every business is faced with threats, which makes security a critical aspect. Take advantage of IT security software solutions to safeguard your business operations.
