It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is. You aren’t immune to the threat of cyber attacks.
There have been more data breaches than ever over the past few years. There were 4.1 billion records stolen just in the first six months of 2019.
If you don’t know much about security, you may not know what to do to keep safe. This post will help you get started. Follow the cybersecurity best practices below to make sure your business network is protected.
1. Configure Your Firewall Properly
A firewall is your first line of defense against hackers. All internet traffic that goes in and out of your company network has to pass through it first. Most business firewalls are configured well out of the box, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t improvements you can make.
You can also use your firewall to restrict the activity of your employees. You don’t want to give access to any site on the internet. Use your firewall to allow your team access to only trusted websites.
2. Set up Anti-Malware Tools
A firewall won’t be able to protect your company network from everything. Hackers release new attacks on the internet all the time. You may suffer from one of these attacks before you can configure your firewall to block it.
These attacks primarily take place on your staff’s computers. When they accidentally download malicious files, malware will spread on their computer and across your entire business network.
When you install anti-malware on your machines, you can stop this from happening. Anti-malware tools get regular updates that help prevent these attacks before they start.
3. Create a Mobile Policy
It’s no surprise that your staff will bring their own devices to work. The question is, can you trust that these devices are secure?
The answer to that question is no.
Any external device that connects to your business network should be considered unsafe. You need to create policies that account for this. If your staff want to connect to your network, then there are rules they need to follow.
The biggest thing you need to make sure of is all devices have automatic updates enabled. This practice will do a lot in preventing exploits on your staff’s devices.
4. Use Two-Factor Authentication
Passwords have never been a good way to keep things secure. It’s easy for an employee to let something slip and expose their password to an attacker.
Two-factor authentication will help this problem.
Two-factor authentication will add another layer of security on top of your password. It can be in the form of emails, text messages, hardware keys, and authentication applications. Even if an attacker can compromise a password, they can’t get into your accounts without the other forms of authentication.
5. Create a Backup Policy
Data is the key to running a successful business in today’s world. Unfortunately, you can’t always keep it safe from destruction.
You can experience hard drive failures, ransomware attacks, and accidental deletions. If you don’t have a backup when this happens, then it can seriously harm your business.
A backup solution will enable you to store copies of your essential information in a cloud account. Whenever an accident happens, log into your account and find the data you lost.
6. Train Your Employees
You would think your company would be safe with the best security. But the best security can’t protect you from uneducated staff members.
Believe it or not, your employees are one of your most significant security risks. Many of the biggest security breaches happen because of employee negligence.
This makes it vital to educate your team on security best practices. Make sure you have a training program that informs your employees about what they should and shouldn’t do when they’re on the job.
7. Limit Access to Data
Having good security doesn’t make your business impenetrable. New exploits are created all the time. If your vulnerable to one of these exploits, then your security won’t keep an attacker out.
But if someone with limited data access is the person who’s compromised, your business will suffer limited exposure. This means putting a policy in place that limits data access to only the people who need it.
The lower the number of privileged users you have in your business, the safer your data is when an attack happens.
8. Use a VPN for Remote Workers
The internet has given workers the ability to work whenever and wherever you want. The problem is you don’t have control over the WiFi network your team is using to work.
If you want to stop their traffic from being monitored, you can use a VPN on your firewall. A VPN will create a secure connection to your company network. Your VPN will encrypt all the network traffic of your employees while they are using it.
Even if someone is monitoring the internet traffic on their network, they won’t be able to see through the encryption.
9. Hire an Expert
If you did a good job hiring people for your IT department, you probably have a good set of security policies in place. But this doesn’t mean you won’t have any gaps. It’s easy to miss a small detail here and there.
You can hire an expert to have a second look at your network. Having someone take a second look can fill in any missing piece of your security policies.
If you want to find someone to help, try talking to a managed IT company. They employ security experts who spend their time protecting their client’s networks.
Make Sure to Follow Cybersecurity Best Practices
You can’t be too careful with security with cybercrime on the rise. Make sure you implement the cybersecurity best practices above to start the process of securing your business.
The points above are only the start. Make sure you learn more about security best practices so you can keep your business protected well into the future.
Do you want to learn more about how you can use tech to help your business? Head over to our technology section to learn the things you can do.
