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Why It Is Vital To Protect Your Business From Cyber Crime

Your business needs to be kept safe. Whatever industry your business belongs to, there are a great many threats to it at any one time. Something that is common to all businesses from every sector is your cybersecurity.

All over the world, businesses are under attack from criminals and hackers. They use elaborate techniques to attempt to bring down your companies website or to gain access to vital financial data and sensitive customer information.

Protecting your business and its assets should be very high up on your objectives. But setting in place a security procedure is only part of the vast task of ensuring that you don’t get hit by cybercriminals.

With 60% of businesses are unable to continue to trade following a severe cyber attack, it is clear that this level of threat is severe.

What To Expect In A Cyber Attack

There are a great many different ways that criminals can attack your business or exploit vulnerabilities within your data infrastructure. Being aware of the risks will demonstrate the importance of maintaining excellent network security.

Cybercrime is the biggest criminal enterprise. In terms of money, more money is obtained through cybercrime than the drug trade. Organized and sophisticated criminal gangs exist and run with the finesse of businesses to try to steal your companies money and assets.

Every hour of every day, companies all over the world come under attack. Every 39 seconds there is a cyber attack somewhere. But what you need to realize as a business owner is that small attempts are made at finding networks that can be easily broken. Repeated pings are made toward your business and for the most part, you will never know because your firewall will stop them. But, for those companies that do not have sophisticated and elaborate security systems in place, then your business is under risk, as all it takes is for a hacker to find that one minor weakness in your security system and they will be inside your system a very long time before you find out about it.

There are several key ways that cybercriminals seek to steal from you. One of the main ways is to take your vital data. If you keep information on your customers, chances are much of it is quite sensitive. This may include names, addresses, and dates of birth. Quite often, this can be a good start for a criminal gang who want to commit identity theft and financially ruin your customers.

If you store login details such as emails and passwords, then this is also extremely valuable to criminals. It is always surprising how many people use the same password across a number of different sites, and once a criminal gang has one email address and one password, they will be able to try and gain access to as many popular sites as possible. And, with many commonly used sites storing financial details too, it won’t be long until they have stolen a considerable amount of money from your customers. Now, think about the number of customers you may be holding on your database, and think about how vital it is to protect them.

Data breaches mean that hackers steal a record every 75 seconds. Where hackers have managed to find their way into the databases of some of the biggest companies in the world, they have gained access to millions of people’s data from one single hack. Once they have this data, they will set to work on trying to use it as quickly as possible before anyone is aware that it has been accessed.

Another very common attack is known as the distributed denial of service or DDoS. This type of attack aimed at the right type of network infrastructure can be devastating and can cost companies a considerable amount of money. Where a vital network that plays a part in keeping people alive, such as a health care or emergency service network is targetted, this could also cost lives.

A distributed denial of service attack completely brings down a company’s computer system or website. By using a constant and repeated barrage of page view requests, hackers essentially wear out the system causing it to collapse. With too many requests to deal with coming in, the system is unable to handle them, and it crashes. The attack continues as long as the hackers want it to. These DDoS attacks often come with a demand for money. Once the ransom is paid, the hackers will stop and normal business can resume. This type of attack is prominent on businesses that have an extremely high turnover, or there are wider implications surrounding them being down. On occasions, a DDoS may be conducted for political reasons.

Keeping Your Network Secure

Imagine your network like a castle. You need to position your troops at strategic defensive positions. The gateway to your wireless network represents one such key entry point into the entire network. Implementing sd-wan security means have a strong drawbridge, portcullis, and your finest soldiers ready in waiting. You cannot afford your wireless network to go unmanaged and you need to ensure that you are implementing stringent security in this area.

Firstly, you will need to ensure that all passwords used on your wireless networked are changed regularly. Of course, when they do change, all of the users who connect will need to change the password on their devices, but this will mean that former employees or anyone else who may have previously accessed your network will not be able to connect in any way anymore. Hackers often use brute force to gain your password. Once they have it, they may well use it repeatedly. And, many companies use the same password across other areas of their business. That means many other banks of vital data could become much easier to access.

Secondly, your wireless router should not maintain its original SSID name. This factory preset name will make it easier for hackers. Instead, change it to something completely different.

All of your data needs to be encrypted. Locking your important information away behind complex code will mean that a potential hacker would have to spend far too long trying to gain access.

Your system should be running up-to-date antivirus software, and firewalls to protect it against malware at all times.

Utilizing Outside Resources

If your business does not have a full IT support infrastructure and department, then you should give serious consideration to outsourcing your IT security needs.

Having a professional organization looking after your security will mean that you will be able to prevent serious attacks from ever taking place.

A company that specializes in network security will be able to advise on the specific risks to your industry and also take you through your own security weaknesses and suggest changes that should be made. They can then help you to implement them fully.

Carrying Out Full Cybersecurity Audits

An essential element of any cybersecurity strategy is to carry out a full system security audit. This will allow you to fully review your policies and procedures and look for any weakness or vulnerability within your systems and infrastructure.

These security audits should be carried out on a regular basis as you will find that things change more often than you realize. Software gets updated and changed, and physical equipment may get replaced. As employees come and go within your organization, permissions and settings will need to change.

Audits will involve going through your entire system with a fine-tooth comb and looking for risks. These risks will be graded and prioritized. They will look at how the systems are being accessed and by who.

Data Protection

If you are holding any data relating to customers whatsoever, then you are bound by law to protect that data. Your company is responsible and in the event of a data breach, losing customer information could severely damage your reputation.

Ensuring that customer data is managed in the most secure manner possible is a matter of significant importance, and you should ensure that these regular audits are carried out in a way that will check that all aspects of data protection are met and managed.

Cyber Security Is Big Business

The cybersecurity industry represents a massive global industry worth a considerable amount of money. But, if your company is not taking the threat of cybercrime seriously and are not investing a percentage of your budget toward paying to protect your valuable data, assets, and sensitive customer information, then you are a sitting duck waiting to lose everything. You must work hard to ensure that you are safe, and the best way that you can do that is to employ an external cybersecurity expert who will be able to provide you with the most honest assessment of the specific threats to our business right now. While you could choose to ignore the suggestions, in the grand scheme of things, spending money on your companies security now, could save you from losing your entire business to one small hack.

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