As the internet age advances and more and more businesses depend on it, cybersecurity has become paramount when it comes to protecting your business from hackers, scammers, data loss, and even identity theft. Cybercriminals are becoming smarter and more sophisticated, so employing expert cybersecurity services is essential to combat them.
So, is your organisation tackling cyber security the right way?
Let’s cover some tips to see if your business is protected, or needs tightening up and improvement in some areas.
Is Your Software Regularly Updated?
Just about every software manufacturer provides regular updates for improvements, fixes, and added layers of security to combat the latest cyber threats. Whenever these updates become available they should be downloaded and installed. This includes updates for:
- Your web browsers
- Operating system
- Anti-virus software
- Business applications, such as MS Office
- Email client
- And more…
It’s not the be-all and end-all solution to cybersecurity, but keeping everything updated with the latest patches goes a long way towards ensuring your business remains safe from threats.
Cyber Security Is the Responsibility Of All Your Employees
Everyone in your organisation needs to be aware of best practices and how to keep the business network safe and secure. An IT specialist can help in educating staff members and management on what needs to be done to guarantee your workplace remains secure.
Staff should never be exposing sensitive information about the business online, such as on social media, nor should they be randomly clicking on links and attachments in emails unless they are certain the emails are from a trusted sender. Spam filters help, but they don’t catch everything. Employees need to know how to recognise a potential phishing email.
Passwords used to access online portals should be unique for each site and strong. A password should contain a combination of letters, numbers and special characters to make them harder to hack. Consider using a Password Manager to secure and maintain your passwords.
Take a Hard Look At Your Business Processes
If the way work gets done is haphazard and rather sloppy, there is a high chance that employees could lose valuable data or files, or that they could accidentally cause a security breach simply through a lack of diligence or awareness.
One way to tighten up processes and make them more efficient is not to delegate too many different tasks to the one employee. Without having to juggle so many diverse processes, there is far less chance of mistakes being made.
It’s also important to evaluate just how safe all your business practices and procedures are, to determine if there are any areas that present a risk to cyber-attacks. Once again, an IT professional can help with this.
Install Risk Management Software
There are quite a few options to choose from on the market when it comes to risk management software, depending on your business requirements. It’s well worth considering investing in some and employing someone as the risk manager.
Risk management software can perform all sorts of tasks, which include keeping tabs on your system to help prevent it from being hacked by cybercriminals. The software will alert you to any areas of your business that pose a potential risk so that you can tighten those areas up before problems occur.
While risk management is the responsibility of everyone involved in the company, having a dedicated risk manager will produce a more robust outcome.
Regularly Backup Your Data
Leaving all your important data and files on the business system and failing to back them up to an offsite location leaves you in a precarious position. If your system fails or is breached and data is stolen, without backups all those files will be lost.
Portable hard-drives are one option for backing up your data, but cloud storage can be even more safe, secure, and effective.
For your data, files, and servers, you should get into the habit of at least daily incremental backups.
Call Future IT Services For Cyber Security
For IT solutions Townsville or IT support Cairns, make the team at Future IT Services your first choice. We’ve got you covered for all your cybersecurity needs, software, repairs, and friendly advice. Give us a call today to discover how we can work together to secure your business.