Everyone is a potential target to a cyberattack. When you own a business, one of your first responsibilities is to protect it. Your Business Continuity Plan (BCP) & Disaster Recovery Plan Template (DRP) must include steps of how to prevent cyberattacks and steps to take in a case one happens.
One of the studies reports that the average cost of a data breach grew from $3.8 million to $4 million. Instead of risking your business thinking it cannot/will not happen to you, take all the steps needed to secure your business from cyberattacks.
Types of cyberattack
Wanting your business to grow, you must protect it and learn how to do it. Let’s first check the types of cyberattack:
- Phising– This is the most common type and the easiest one to prevent. It includes fraudulent e-mails. Clicking these links can damage your OS or steal sensitive information.
- APTs– Advanced Persistent Threats is the most dangerous one. It includes small attacks over a period of time until they become linked and cause enormous damage.
- Inside job– employees have access to all information and it takes only one annoyed or dissatisfied employee can penetrate your system.
After learning types of cyberattack, make sure your employees are familiar with them as well and the next step to take is doing all you can to prevent them.
Cyber Security Tips
Here are some of the most important cyber security tips:
- Passwords– it is not enough to have any password. Make it strong and unique and change it often. Use multiple characters and also apply 2 factor authentications (2FA), a second validation measure that uses verification codes, hardware tokens and biometric codes.
- Virus, Spyware, Malicious Code– Make sure your computers have the latest versions of anti-virus software and antispyware installed. Update them regularly. Your software can be configured to install updates automatically.
- Educate your Employees– Make a written Internet policy which tells your stuff the importance of cyber protection and all the rules they MUST follow. The more they know, the more they are aware of the consequences, the safer your business is.
- Insurance– Not every insurance policy refunds losses from cyberattack loss. It can be a small investment to secure your business and it does not have to be a huge burden to your company’s budget.
- Control access– Control physical access to your computers and networks. Unauthorised individuals should be prevented the access to your business computers. Each employee, who can have access to sensitive information, should have his/her user account with a strong password. All computers and laptops should be locked when left unattained and in a case of theft or being lost, this will prevent the access to the data it contains.
- Backup copies– Make copies of all important information and data regularly and store them in the cloud or offsite. Your equipment might get broken, stolen and so information and data, but having it somewhere aside will do you no harm.
Once you have taken all the measures to prevent cyberattack, you can hope for the best and rely on ‘’it cannot happen to me.’’