Six Super Suggestions For Keeping Your Online Business Secure

Small business owners have a lot on their plates. They’re juggling raising a business from its hard beginnings alongside hiring and training staff to be a part of their success. Small business owners have a lot of considerations to make and so it’s easy for a small business to forget some of the most important areas they should be budgeting for when they plan their finances. Your IT security, for example, is one of the most important things to consider when you are setting up. It is an extremely complicated task for a business to keep their online business safe. We live in a digital world, now, and that means that while our technology gets smarter and more efficient, so do the criminals who hack into that technology and those smart business systems. The presumption is that only large businesses are at risk of attack from outside sources – this is not the case, and it’s a very dangerous presumption to make.

As a small business owner, you need to be aware of the potential attacks that your business could be exposed to. It’s your job to know how your business appears to the outside world and what windows are left vulnerable in your office space. The thing is, it’s far easier to recover from a robbery of an office where physical equipment is stolen, versus recovering from a cyberattack that could see such a staggering breach of data compromised, customer trust disappearing and a total crumbling of your company. It sounds like it’s scary, doesn’t it? Well, it should. It’s scary for your customers and your clients to have their information compromised and you should be doing everything that you can to secure your online business to minimize the risk of this happening. With all of this in mind, we’ve got six super suggestions for your business to keep as secure as possible:

Build Walls: You wouldn’t leave your garden gate wide open at night with an unlocked door, would you? You’d be to blame if someone decided to sneak in and steal your things, right? Well, it’s the same thing with your online business. You need to build firewalls to keep the malware out. Malware is malicious software designed to strip back your online business of its sensitive data and infiltrate your business network. Clean up your emails with anti-spam and choose excellent security software to protect your PCs. If you want to go one better, visit https://atb-tech.com to get the right protection with managed IT services. Closing the windows and doors to intruders is the first and most important step.

Dictate Policy: Your business will have staff on board, and those employees of yours have to be aware of your policy when it comes to fraud and crime online. Your policy should include the requirement of strong passwords, enforce strict consequences for those who don’t follow your security policy, education about your company email and the use of internet at work. Make sure your staff know exactly the result of what will happen if things are compromised.

Socially Secure: Social media has come around and grown very quickly, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. It’s important to minimize the risks to your company on social media, because once it’s online and customers have seen it, it has an impact. Let your staff know not to post personal information or opinions about your company on social media and define to your staff what must remain confidential. No one needs to have a lawsuit on their hands because of an opinion on social media – protect your business.

Password Protect: Everything from your main computer stations to your data servers should be protected with passwords, and not just any passwords; case sensitive, regularly changing passwords. Ensure that your staff never share passwords and also train them to understand that there is a hierarchy when it comes to who gets which password. Select staff should have passwords to the main servers and this should be changed regularly to keep your data safe.

Work Together: The only way that your company is going to keep your data and your information safe is if you all work together to keep it that way. Senior staff should come together for regular updates and training sessions on business security. Most of the data losses in the workplace are caused by human error. Minimize the errors by implementing up to date training regularly enough that your staff understand what to do and what not to do to keep the business running.

Be Current: Technology evolved and moves very quickly, which means that your business could be regularly upgrading its hardware as well as its software. If your staff both in the office and remotely are using the right, most up to date technology every day, you increase the protection that you can offer your data. Use updated computers to minimize lagging technology and always update your antivirus. If you rely on an old antivirus program, you’re relying on outdated technology to keep your business security tight. Where you can, automate your updates for your systems and your software so that you never miss a chance to keep your business secure.

You have a responsibility to your business and to your customers to keep your company secure from outside threats. If your business ends up compromised, you could lose the faith that people have in you and all the hard work that you’ve put into your company can be for nothing. The level of security that you give your business is going to keep you growing and keep your business healthy. The more you pay attention to the security that you place on your staff, your technology and your brand, the better off you will be. It’s the one place that your business should be excited to invest some cash, so do some research and get the best for your business put in place as early as possible, so that you stay protected.