Cybercriminals are always looking for ways to steal precious personal information, financial records, intellectual property, etc. They might then misuse these details to steal money, set up bogus credit cards, or blackmail you. Moreover, they might sell this information on the black market for a price. So while it might be an uphill battle to protect your business data from theft, it’s one that you can’t walk away from.
Remember that data security is only a single piece of a giant puzzle. It is also vital to implement a backup strategy for your business. Data security is all good when trying to keep hackers away, but what will you do if these hackers get their grubby mitts on it? How will your recover it? So, to answer these questions, listed below are a few ways to protect your business data from theft and hackers!
Conduct Regular Security Audits
If you have no idea of what elements of your business are open to data theft, you will not be able to secure it properly. William Schantz suggests that it would be best to work with your entire IT department and a professional auditor to analyze your infrastructure, including all computers, network devices, and mobile devices.
Doing so will let you know what steps you need to take to prevent hackers from gaining access to your business’s network and stealing data from your devices, making it a sure-fire way to protect your business data.
Set Strong Passwords
Most of us set passwords that are too common such as our birth date or place of birth. Hackers crack these passwords easily with a few clicks of the mouse. However, a dictionary attack (an automated tool that hackers use to crack your password) will never happen when we choose complex, long passwords.
Schantz recommends avoiding writing down passwords, especially on your mobile devices. Hackers can sometimes also gain access to your mobile devices’ files and steal whatever you’ve stored on them, including your saved passwords. Instead, use a combination of symbols and upper case alphabets, and keep your passwords at least more than eight characters long to remove any chances of someone guessing them.
Introduce Excellent Security Policies
It is one thing to allow your employees to work with freedom, but it is also vital for your business’s safety to implement security policies that keep their access to data in check. For instance, William Schantz suggests asking your employees to install security software on your business’s network devices.
If they are using your in-house devices, limit their access to valuable business information. Moreover, ask them to never share any security information through email or over the phone. Policies such as these will allow your staff to stay aware and protect your business data from theft.
Try Data Encryption
Data encryption is a critical initiative to protect your business data. Through data encryption, you are essentially locking access. So, even if someone steals data, they can’t decrypt it without entering the correct password. The best part about data encryption is that you will have to be a bigger genius than Bill Gates to implement encryption.
Numerous data encryption programs are available on the internet that allows you to encrypt your data securely. Furthermore, Schantz suggests encrypting more than just your business computers.
Wrapping Up
As we are the sole custodians of our business’s data, we have to do our best to ensure it doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. But unfortunately, protecting valuable data doesn’t always mean installing antivirus software or setting up a firewall. For most experienced hackers, these are just a few speed bumps.
Therefore, you have to keep tabs on who can access your data and its storage location. Once you do this, you will protect your business data from even the deadliest of cyber security attacks!
Get in touch with William Schantz today by visiting our website. We will help you manage and run your business and protect it from theft and security threats!
