It is important to protect your company from cyber threats.
Here are seven ways to help ensure the cyber security of your business.
Train your employees
Most viruses and bugs spread because people open an email purportedly from someone they know, or because they click a suspicious link without considering what could be on the other end.
Train your employees to recognize phishing links and pages, and make sure they never open unknown attachments. If it looks suspicious, it’s not worth the risk.
Install security updates
The WannaCry ransomware attack in May 2017 affected more than a quarter million computers across the world in less than a day, but Microsoft had released a critical security update to patch the vulnerability nearly two months before the attack began. Any users who neglected to install the patch, or who used older, unsupported versions of Windows, were at risk.
Make sure to install security updates on all devices as soon as they’re available. Waiting until tomorrow could be too late.
Secure your network
Poor network security puts your entire organization at risk, as any data—from passwords to financial information—you or your employees transmit could be intercepted by attackers.
Invest in new networking technology with the latest security protocols, and set up a virtual private network (VPN) if any employees need to access the network remotely.
Lock down your website
Modern content management systems like WordPress are great for updating your website quickly and easily, but they can be vulnerable to attack if they’re not protected properly. Ask your web developer about limiting login attempts to prevent brute force attacks, and avoid themes and plugins that aren’t highly rated for security.
Have a backup plan
In the event of an attack, a recent backup is key. Not having backups could mean losing years of work or—worse—having no choice but to pay a ransom to recover your data.
Back up all website files every time you update it, and use a tool that backs up data on hard drives or servers daily or even automatically. The best plans include both cloud backups and offsite physical backups for your most important data.
Don’t share user accounts
Shared user accounts are risky for a few reasons: They tend to have very basic passwords so that all users can remember them, and they make it virtually impossible to trace a breach back to its source since it could have been initiated by any employee accessing the account. Ensure that each employee has their own login and password for all essential systems.
Use a password manager
Login attempt limits don’t always help if your password is something obvious like, well, “password”. Even seemingly clever tricks like replacing letters with numbers are so commonplace today that an attacker can crack such a password in minutes.
Using a password manager is a bit of a leap, but you’ll likely embrace it when you don’t have to remember passwords for dozens of accounts anymore. Services like LastPass and 1Password generate secure passwords automatically, sync your login information across all your devices and offer tools for reviewing and improving your password security.
If you’d like to know more about protecting your business financially from computer security threats, contact John B Wright to discuss their cyber liability insurance programs.
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