More security breaches have occurred in the past few years than there has since the internet has been around. According to reports, there were 4.1 billion records stolen in the first six months of 2019. If you don’t take security seriously, you’ll put your company and customers at risk.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to make mistakes with digital security. Below are seven common mistakes that are easy to avoid.
7 Mistakes Every Small Business Do
1. Weak Password Policy
Nobody likes to remember tons of complex passwords. To solve this problem, many people resort to using memorable information that’s unique to them. Unfortunately, this creates a significant security risk.
Attackers make use of social engineering tactics to gather information about individuals. Once they have this information, they can use it to guess passwords and get more information about their accounts. Creating strong passwords will stop this from happening.
If you have a lot of accounts, it makes more sense to use a password manager. These programs will create strong passwords that can’t be guessed. To make things better, they will automatically fill in login forms, so your employees don’t have to remember any passwords.
2. Not Updating Website Software
Websites are a lot more than static files today. They use complex software to manage content and provide unique experiences for visitors. This complexity opens up the possibility of security problems.
Your company needs to make regular website updates to make sure your software has the latest security patches. Doing this will fortify your website from online threats.
It doesn’t take long for software vendors to release security patches, so subscribe to their updates to make sure you always know when an update is needed for privacyonline.
3. Poor Remote Worker Security
Employees don’t need to spend their days commuting to the office anymore to get work done. We have the tools today that allow people to do their work from the comfort of their homes. As time goes on, working from home will no longer be the exception.
Unfortunately, this also opens the door to new security issues. If your team is using their devices at home to work, you need to be sure their connections are secure. You can mitigate this problem by setting up a VPN.
A VPN will give your team a direct connection to the office. Everything they do online will be encrypted, so you don’t need to worry about attackers snooping on your worker’s activities.
4. No Backup System
No matter how much security you have in place, you can never predict when data loss will happen. Whether it happens because someone made a mistake or a piece of hardware fails, the result is the same. You lose valuable data that you need to run your business.
Not having a backup system means you can’t quickly recover from these situations. The great news is that it isn’t difficult to put a system in place.
Cloud backup technology gives you the option to automatically backup your important information on a schedule. You download a tool to the devices that have data on them and use a configuration wizard to set everything up.
Once you finish, you can log into your backup provider and restore data with a few clicks of a button.
5. Lack of Monitoring Tools
You need insight into what’s happening on your computer network if you want to protect yourself from threats. Without monitoring tools, you aren’t going to be able to do that.
The first place to start is a firewall. These devices sit in front of all network traffic that goes in and out of your network. If something doesn’t look right, your firewall will block all traffic associated with that activity.
You can also prevent employees from accessing untrusted sites with your firewall. Doing this will make it easier to stop people from downloading malicious applications.
You’ll also need to protect the individual computers your employees use. Anti-virus and anti-malware will handle this for you. These programs will monitor the files on your devices for threats and remove any they find. Also, an identity governance and administration solution is another powerful addition to your cyber security arsenal. With it, you’ll be able to encompass all aspects of digital identity management.
6. Inadequate Employee Training
It only takes one mistake to invalidate a massive investment in cybersecurity. Unfortunately, people are one of the most common sources of these mistakes.
All the work that your company puts into its cybersecurity measures is pointless if your employees don’t know what they should and shouldn’t do on the internet. People make mistakes all the time, so it’s up to you to make sure everybody in your company is informed about what they can do on the internet.
Spend time to create a training program for your employees. You can work with a security specialist or find a course on the internet. Require that each one of your employees go through your class before they get access to the internet.
7. No Regular Security Audits
The world of cybersecurity isn’t static. Every day, security researchers are discovering new vulnerabilities with hardware and software. If you don’t keep up to date on these developments, you can put your business at risk.
You need a regular checkup on your cybersecurity practices to make sure you’re still secure. You can do this yourself, or you can work with a security consulting company.
The great thing about working with a consulting company is that they handle the heavy lifting for you. They know how to test business networks for issues. Once they finish their testing, they can also put fixes in place for you that will protect your business.
Don’t Fall Victim to Mistakes With Digital Security
Suffering from a cyberattack isn’t only inconvenient. It can cost you a lot of money from fines and lost data if you don’t do your due diligence in protecting your data and check internetetsecurite for better security advice. Avoid the mistakes with digital security above to stop attackers before they can breach your company network.
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