One of the most devastating things that can happen to a small business is a data or an information breach. Not only does it cost a lot of money to repair the holes that the hackers make during data breaches, but it also damages a company’s reputation and ruins the trust between your business, your customers, and your employees immeasurably. So much so that 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyber attack.
With cybercrime on the rise, you need to be careful with who you employ and ensure you get the best IT management team out there to protect not only your small business but your customers’ and employees’ sensitive data, too.
Here are three ways you can keep your small business safe against the massively rising threat of cybercrime when you and your team are working remotely.
#1 Educate yourself and your employees about hackers’ methods and ensure they know what to do if they see something suspicious
It’s always good to remain educated about hacker methods. This can be anything from social engineering methods to insider threats to APTs (or otherwise known as Advanced Persistent Threats). You need to know the signs, and so do they. If they see a link in an email that they are not too sure about or see a coworker acting suspiciously, they should report it as soon as they can.
Understandably, when working remotely, this can be very difficult to keep track of. But, as the business owner, it will be your responsibility to ensure that you protect your employees’ and your customers’ information to the best of your ability.
#2 Invest in a good network security business, especially if you’re working remotely
Investing in a good network security business such as Kortek Solutions, is imperative whenworking remotely, as 41.8% of Americans currently are. This protects your network and puts up a strong line of defense against APTs. These are generally targeted attacks that break into your network, which means the hackers can see everything that is going from your secure, private network to an insecure and public network such as the internet.
This means that they can see what you’re searching for, your credit card details if you purchase something over the internet, or even personal details from filling out an online form.
#3 Invest in an operational security (OPSEC) service to monitor your companies actions
This can be a very convenient piece of equipment to have around. What Operational Security (OPSEC) does is it identifies friendly actions and transactions that might cause harm to the business if a hacker were to infiltrate the database or transaction.
It does this by monitoring the data that is being exchanged and if, when grouped with other data or simply on its own, it will pose a threat to the companies security or will reveal critical or sensitive data.