Be Prepared: The Basics of Cybersecurity

Any part of your business that relies on the internet can be affected by a breach in security. This seems surprising but hackers have become so advanced and prevalent that they look for any weakness in a system to exploit. They will target your websites looking for a way around any paywalls or client portals and will target your employees by tricking them to open and read messages that have malicious content. They will ultimately try any means necessary to get around firewalls and anti-virus software.

Here are some basic concepts of cyber security and how they can pertain to your business.

Security starts with strategy

Before you know what you need to protect from, you must first understand your specific needs. Does your business deal heavily with customer financial information?  Does it need to be stored? Do you keep any personal customer information? Have you had a security breach or loss of data in the past? How do you manage passwords or employees that insist on using their own portable device for business?  These are important questions that can be answered by creating a cyber security policy, writing it down, and making sure each employee understands and follows them.

Security is a team effort

Hiring an “IT person” and leaving all aspects of internet security up to her is an ineffective way to handle security. Your entire company from top to bottom needs to make internet security a priority. The biggest threat to your security, and in many ways the life of your business altogether, is complacency. To improve security you need the entire organization to buy in and this is important even if you decide to outsource.

Proper security is layered

These days security solutions are not intended to act alone. A great antivirus software option isn’t much use when you don’t have a single firewall in place. Different pieces of your security will work in unison to increase overall effectiveness and provide stopgap measures.

All it takes is one attack

A single ransomware attack can take down an entire business. If your company experiences data loss from a cyber attack you are more likely to go out of business. And if you think your business is too small to worry about cyber attacks, know that 60% of attacks target small and medium businesses.

Keep everything updated

This should be a daily task for someone, even over weekends when the doors are closed. Updates keep the security protocols current meaning your hardware and software are able to meet any internet threat.

Test the system regularly

One of the best ways to find out if your security is robust enough to handle a cyber attack is to simulate one yourself. This will root out weaknesses and identify the likely path a cyber criminal will take to breach your system.

Call SBT Partners

Understanding these concepts are one thing but following them is another. The simplest way to make sure your networks are secure is to outsource it to an experienced professional. SBT Partners has helped hundreds of clients get their security up to date and keep it that way. Call us today for a free IT consultation and find out how SBT can help your business remain secure in a dangerous world.