The continuous adoption of technological solutions across many different business sectors and industries has had numerous benefits. Work has become more efficient, as employers no longer have to spend time on extraneous repeated tasks, and automation has also reduced the incidence of human errors.
Processes have become safer, and it is not much easier to create records and ensure their integrity. It almost sounds too good to be true, and like the workplace has seemingly overnight transformed into a perfect place.
Naturally, that is not the case. Digitalisation has exacerbated a new risk, that of hackers and other cybercriminals. These individuals attempt to extract sensitive information from companies and institutions that they can later use for malicious purposes. If you want to keep your enterprise safer, here are some things you should keep in mind.
Reputation
If your company is affected by a data breach, your customers will undoubtedly be involved and have sensitive information, such as credit card details, accessed without their consent. Data breaches are unique when it comes to damages because they don’t cause any physical harm. However, the psychological and financial damage can be extreme, meaning that customers are likely to talk to a specialised attorney from https://www.databreachcompensationexpert.co.uk to receive the maximum amount of compensation they deserve.
Apart from the financial costs, data breaches also affect your company’s reputation. Depending on the size and popularity of your business, your enterprise might be unable to recover from the incident, and you’ll be completely ousted from business. This isn’t a scenario any entrepreneur wants to even imagine. As such, it’s crucial to create a comprehensive strategy that doesn’t only protect you from breaches but also allows you to respond promptly and efficiently in case of attack.
Joint responsibility
Your company isn’t protected until every single member of your company is aware of the possible risks. Your team works together, and so everybody has a responsibility towards the enterprise. Expecting the IT department to be in charge of everything isn’t realistic, mainly because it is much easier to prevent issues like data breaches rather than solve them. While many employees might think that their work has nothing to do with data security, the truth is that everybody who uses the same internet network can create problems for your systems.
An employee who uses the same Wi-Fi network to browse the internet at lunchtime can potentially bring malware into your work ecosystem if they’re connected with the same accounts on both devices. Sometimes, there’s no need for phishing attacks since human error can cause employees to send emails and share information with the wrong customer. The consequences of doing this are the same as in the case of any data breach.
If you believe your team lacks adequate training, you can start with workshops and classes. Get an expert to talk to everyone and make things simple and straightforward to understand so that there’s no confusion for employees that aren’t very tech-savvy.
Audits
Regular audits can help you identify gaps and vulnerabilities in your security policy. These are the places where your business could be targeted. After you’ve demarcated the problems, you can begin to discuss the solutions and formulate plans to solve them. You can even draw inspiration from your strengths since the audits will also reveal the areas where you’ve succeeded in ensuring security. You can follow the same steps to strengthen the problem areas as well.
Backing up your data every day should be a must for any business. While the cloud is a good solution, a hard drive is even better since it means that you have all the documents you need stored on a device that’s not accessible through the internet. That means the hackers that targeted your business won’t be able to access it either. And, of course, you must constantly update any software to the latest version available.
Even if upgrades can seem pesky sometimes, you should still follow through because they’re designed to patch issues within the system that can act as a gateway for cybercriminals. To avoid the annoyance and trouble of having to pause your work to install updates, you can schedule them for off-business hours.
Access and encryption
The fact that all your employees operate within the same system can be a problem. Even data breaches begins from just one computer or account, it can still spread to all the other ones and impact the entire network’s security. This is naturally a problem because it means that the hacker will gain access to even more information. That’s why it is best to restrict platform usage. Employees should only access the documents, files and systems they need to perform their tasks.
Having access to every single part of the system increases the possibility of a breach since the volume of information is considerably higher. It also means that a hacker can move more freely and won’t meet any resistance when attempting to extract private data. Encrypting all your communication channels, including the email, is excellent if you’re truly committed to making your business safer.
All communications that include personally identifiable information should be encrypted, but applying this method to all emails ensures even better protection. Make sure to never store the encryption keys on servers because they can then be easily unlocked and accessed.
In case of a breach
However, despite all the safety precautions worldwide, data breaches can still occur. It’s essential to act quickly to isolate the breach and ensure it doesn’t move further into your system. Your cybersecurity protocol must also include practical and comprehensive solutions for what should be done in this scenario. Getting cybersecurity insurance can help you mitigate the losses.
You must also inform all your customers and partners about the breach. Remember to remind them that you’re doing everything you can to determine the cause of the breach and minimise the fallout. You must also remember to look carefully through all your documents to determine which of them have been modified or deleted. This is why having backups is important because it means everything lost can be replaced.
Cybersecurity threats are no laughing matter; you should treat them as seriously as you treat any other business area.
