The challenges faced by businesses are becoming more complex and varied by the day. Gone are the days where the only threats that business owners had to worry about were vandals and robbers, now all of the crimes that are most detrimental to your business can happen through the internet. Cyber threats are becoming increasingly more imminent and now more than ever it’s becoming a priority to install the necessary resources to make sure that your business is protected.
Make Security Part of Your Company Culture
Whatever industry you specialize in, it’s important to make sure that security is ingrained into the fiber of your core values. Make sure to conduct risk assessments and ensure that protection and security become part of your everyday processes and decisions. Put your employees through training courses for how to act in certain security threatening situations, install the right software to back up your important information, and make sure that all of your assets are guarded, covered, and protected in the physical and cyber worlds. This may seem like an obvious process to adopt as a business owner, but it’s easy to overlook certain aspects or to miss something vital. The key is to be rigorous in your risk assessments and security processes – it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Cyber Threats – The New Risk
Everything is technologically connected in the modern world, from your oven, to your watch, to your desktop, which means that there are essentially more avenues for hackers to go down to access your important information. The more technologically driven and involved that your company is, the bigger cyber security risk you pose. This may sound scary, and truth be told, being hacked as a business is almost inevitable, but there are certain ways you can protect yourself against these hackers.
There may be a small home in your company’s online presence that a hacker can force their way in to, but the key is to have layers between each system and between each piece of vital information. The more layers you install into your plan, the more difficult it will become for cyber hackers to access the information. Think of it this way: if you’re a shop owner, you wouldn’t put your safe out onto the street, you would put it a room with a locked door, inside another room with a locked door etc. – it’s the same principle with data security. Take this idea and run with it. It could be the difference between protecting your assets and getting hacked.
How to Protect Yourself in the Cyber World
Cyber hacking is not something that you can avoid by burying your head in the sand. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to put into action the safe practices that could be the difference between your business’ safety and all of your information being stolen. Here are some basic tips to ensure that your business is protected from hackers:
- Put up a firewall – This is like a home security system for your online data. Firewalls are in control of all of the data entering and leaving your computer systems and can prevent any unwanted or unrecognized access to your network
- Protect your Wi-Fi – Make sure that your Wi-Fi is password protected to prevent any unauthorized person from accessing your network. Create a password that includes letters and numbers so it’s not predictable.
- Routinely change passwords – If you change your passwords on a monthly basis, then you will have a much better chance of securing your network, put this into practice and also train your employees to follow the same standards.
- Install anti-virus software – This will collaborate with your firewall installations. Firewall prevents hackers, and anti-virus software prevents your computers from getting ‘viruses’ from malicious programs, which can weaken your protection and open the floodgates to hackers
Get the Basics Sorted
If we move away from cyber security, there are also measures that should be put in place to protect from physical threats. If you’re a shop/restaurant owner, nightclub mogul, or industrial site proprietor, it could be a good idea to hire a security team. Depending on your industry sector, these security teams should differ. As a night club owner it’s essential to have “bouncers” and security guards, and for an industrial site, it’s a good idea to invest in protection dogs to deter and detain any vandals or security threats. Aside from the traditional security measures being taken, drone trackers and sensors have been installed into critical infrastructure systems and industrial sites to prevent thieves, hackers and vandals from gaining access to any sensitive information or footage.
Security threats are always a risk as a business owner, it’s important to put into place the correct security measures to ensure that you are giving yourself the best chance of protection. If you’re a savvy business owner, you will install measures to deter and protect cyber hacking and physical threats from having a significant impact on your business.
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