Easy ways to protect your business from a cyber attack

Technology is constantly moving forward and hackers are finding more sophisticated and inventive ways to attack businesses. Data breaches and leaks can cost not only your trust with consumers but your hard-earned profits too.

Last year alone, the figure for attacks online to UK businesses stood at £34 billion* in losses. And new research reveals that over 1 in 3 Brits in employment (34%) consider cyber-attacks the biggest threat to their company**.

But don’t worry, there are measures you can take to keep your business safe and secure. Here’s some easy ways to get started:

Back-up your data

Encourage your employees to back up their data. This could be to remote locations like ‘The Cloud’ or to an external hard drive. That way if you experience a data breach, you’ve got a copy of all the important information.

Keep it encrypted

If you have sensitive information about the business, employees or customers on your system it should be encrypted. This is a way to protect information, putting it in a code that makes it harder for hackers to decipher. You can learn how to do this with tutorials online.

Be vigilant with your inbox

It may seem like common sense to some, but it’s good to keep staff educated about email red flags. Viruses and malware can download in seconds from links and attachments. You should never click on anything that looks even a little suspicious, or from an address you don’t recognise. Similarly, don’t give out sensitive details unless your 100% certain of the recipient.

Invest in cyber security

Be sure to add a firewall to your machines that will detect hackers, viruses and worms. They let you know what’s going on behind the scenes and are often customisable, so you can pick which protection features work for you.

Change passwords regularly

If your system doesn’t already prompt this on a regular basis, be sure to remind your staff how important it is to change their passwords. It’s also a good idea to use different passwords for different platforms and add strength using capital letters, numbers and other characters.

* https://cebr.com/reports/60-of-british-ctos-say-uk-government-is-performing-poorly-in-protecting-firms-from-cyberattacks/

** ADT Vital Business Security survey - May 2017