5 Ways To Improve Your Business Cybersecurity

When it comes to your business, there may be nothing more terrifying than the idea of a cybersecurity breach. Not only can this damage your reputation, but it can even take your business under. While not every attack is preventable, there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of a breach happening to you. Here are five ways you can improve your business cybersecurity. 

1. Train Employees on Cybersecurity

Your employees are an important part of your cybersecurity plan. Make sure that you train them well and that they are aware of the risks of exposing information. Create and implement policies and procedures related to the handling of sensitive customer information. Every employee should also know what protocol to follow in the event of a breach taking place. If there are any updates to your cybersecurity policies, make sure that each individual is informed of the changes. 

Ensure that employees understand how to create strong passwords to prevent them from being vulnerable to cracking. Enable two-step authentication whenever possible as an added layer of security. For information that may be too secure to be under just one person's control, consider implementing a two-person requirement so that both people are responsible for the use of that information. 

2. Restrict Access to Unnecessary Information

It's unlikely that all roles within your company will need access to the same information. As a precaution, limit the access that employees have to information they don't need. Set up a separate profile for each person with a unique user ID and log-in. These profiles can be managed to control the amount of information they have access to. The fewer people that can view or alter sensitive information, the less likely it is to be misused. 

3. Guard Your Network

Utilizing technology to guard your network is a necessary step for protecting sensitive data. Make sure that you use an IPS to act as a security guard for your network to avoid breaches. If you find yourself asking, "what is IPS," it's a technology that watches your network to identify and block suspicious activity. This can prevent hackers from gaining control of your systems to gather information. It's kind of like a guard dog for your network. 

4. Don't Share Your Wi-Fi

If you have a business where you'd like to offer free wi-fi to your customers for convenience, make sure that it's a separate wi-fi from where you store personal information. The last thing you want to do is give out your secure password to everyone who asks for it. This increases the likelihood that someone will hack into your system and gain access to private information. Only employees should have access to passwords for wi-fi, and only if they absolutely have to. It may be more expensive to pay for two wi-fi networks, but it's definitely less costly than the repercussions a breach will have on your business. 

5. Back-Up Your Data

There's nothing more harrowing than coming into the office and realizing that all the data you use for your day-to-day job has been stolen. Make sure to back-up your data regularly just in case a breach does happen. Not only that but make sure to also secure your backup information. For example, if you store data both on your secure server and also in the cloud, make sure both locations are completely secured. Use passwords and encryption technology to make sure that everything stays safe. 

While the threat of cyber-attacks and breaches are certainly scary, advances in technology are finding ways to help us protect information more securely. As a business, it's your responsibility to ensure that the information you collect is as secure as possible. There are things you can do and precautions you can take, so make sure you are aware of all your options. Also, make sure to check government regulations around cybersecurity to stay in compliance. If you are found out of compliance, this can result in hefty fines and reputation damage.