It is not just the Fortune 500 companies that need to be concerned about attacks from cyber criminals. Small and medium sized businesses are attractive targets. It is not enough to have an off-the-shelf antivirus running on your computer and feel like you are protected.
Cyber crime is a profitable business for criminals, the total revenues are predicted to be $1.5 trillion globally. Like any profitable market, cyber criminals have begun to specialize with some making the software, others deploying it and still others reselling the data they obtain from your system. Cybercrime is a constantly evolving threat and as such, it is important that business leaders take the necessary precautions to prevent breaches. You may be wondering where you should start, here are some basics that every business should be doing:
- Protect your network and devices – deploy a next generation firewall to protect your network, provide VPN for employee remote access, implement multi-factor authentication wherever offered and install anti-virus software on your computers and servers.
- Keep your software up to date – cyber criminals exploit software vulnerabilities, so keeping your systems patched helps close these access points.
- Train your employees – ongoing security training raises employee awareness of the ploys criminals will use to gain access.
- Backup your data – ongoing backups should be occurring to protect your data from corruption or loss from security breaches.
- Create straightforward cybersecurity policies – document your rules for cybersecurity practices such as computer use, bring your own devices, authentication requirements, etc..
These 5 steps will get your company started down the right path. Prioritize your cybersecurity to safeguard your business.
There are free resources available from the US Chamber of Commerce (https://www.uschamber.com/CybersecurityEssentials) and Homeland Security (https://www.us-cert.gov/resources/smb) if you want to pursue this further.
At Forward Systems we are in the business of protecting our customers. We are a security focused Managed IT company located in Roswell, GA supporting businesses in the Atlanta area. Schedule a free consultation to assess your security at https://www.forwardsystemsus.com/security or call us at (770) 217-4566.