5 Ways to Improve Your Business’ Cyber Security

In today’s always-on business environment, cyber security is critical for the protection of your website, data, systems, software and confidential information. Protecting your business online should be your top priority, as hackers use increasingly sophisticated techniques to access and potentially sabotage your business.

However, cyber security does not need to be complex. Simply following a few best practices will keep the majority of hackers and malicious attacks at bay. Here’s our top 5 ways to keep your business protected and secure online.

How to keep your online business safe

• Set complex passwords
  

  The days where something like admin123 was acceptable are gone. Hackers can now use robots to try a huge variety of common password combinations to gain access to your website or other systems. Now you need a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters such as ?, ! or *.Ideally you will have a unique password for each platform, tool or software, because if your passwords are all the same or similar it only takes a hacker to get one of your passwords and a lot of the work is done for them. You should also stay away from easy-to-acquire information such as your birthday or children’s names as these details can often be found on social media.

• Keep all software and tools up-to-date

  Have you ever been nagged by one of your systems to complete an update, and ignored it? Don’t. Updates are essential for protecting your systems against the latest hacks, malware and phishing attempts. Complete all updates as soon as you’re made aware of them for a simple way to improve your cyber security.

• Enable two-factor authentication
  

  Two-factor authentication creates an additional barrier in the event that someone does gain access to one of your accounts. The first or every time an unrecognised computer or IP address gains or tries to gain access with a username and password, two-factor authentication creates an extra step for security. Commonly, two-factor authentication is found when you sign up for a email newsletter, for example, and you have to click a verification link in an email address. This can be tightened to include a code in a text message to one or more specified phone numbers, so that whomever is trying to gain access will have to contact the owners of those numbers to get the access code.

• Maintain consistent security
  

  A strict security protocol should be in place for all your employees to ensure that your cyber security efforts are not wasted. This could include setting and maintaining complex passwords, logging out of software and tools when not in use, changing passwords when someone leaves the business and so on.An increasing threat, however, are phishing emails. These are emails that appear to be from a genuine source such as PayPal, Amazon or Apple, and they will contain a link that – if clicked – could cause a lot of damage. Many of these emails are blocked or sent to the junk folder by the major email providers but some do get through – so employees must be aware of the serious implications and always check the sender.

• Protect your data
  

  Protecting against hacks and cyber security breaches is all well and good, but you need to be prepared in case someone actually does gain access to your website or systems. That’s why a unique password for each segment of your business is so important; if hackers only gain access to one part, the breach is much easier to manage.Using a variety of physical and cloud servers is an advantage, while keeping backups of your most important data in an extra-secure, different location will help prevent disaster in the event of unauthorised access. A secure data centre is also well worth investing in.

Keep your business secure online with Multum Tech

Maintaining your business’ security online doesn’t need to be stressful or time consuming. At Multum Tech, we’re on hand to take care of all the hard work and cyber security issues, so you can enjoy complete peace of mind that your business is safe and secure 24 /7. To find out more, please give our specialists a call on 1300 685886.