Policies, procedures, and tech to keep your company safe
With rates of cyber-crime and data theft rising all the time, keeping your business secure has never been more important. But the scope of modern business IT systems can make this look like an impossible challenge. However, it’s easier than you might think. Here are six key steps that you can take to help secure your business.
- Understand your data
In order to keep your business secure it is important to understand the value of your assets – and one of the major assets to any business is its data. So, the first thing that you need to do is establish what data is sensitive and needs to be secured – during this process you will also need to identify how this data is used and where it is currently stored.
Data that is business critical or high risk needs to be treated appropriately and given a high level of security. Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to also protect the less sensitive data, rather that you need to ensure you are prioritizing data and not trying to treat everything equally.
- Establish a BYOD policy
Bring your own device (BYOD) is becoming increasingly popular across many businesses. It has many benefits; allowing people to work from devices they feel comfortable on, reducing the need for company expenditure on hardware, and even making working from other locations much easier than it had been before.
However, it can also be a significant cybersecurity risk. If individuals are bringing their own devices to work and accessing company documents and data they can potentially be at risk of attacks. Cyber criminals are always looking for the easiest route into a system – so a less secure device is considered an easy target.
It is important, then, to establish a BYOD policy at your business so that everyone understands that any devices that they wish to use to access company data must have an appropriate level of security. Additionally, they must conform to the rules of the policy.
- Invest in cloud computing technology
If you are interested in ensuring the security of your business, now could be the perfect time to invest in cloud technology. If you currently use in-house servers the burden is entirely on your business to ensure that they are always correctly patched and updated to keep them as secure as possible from any potential cyber-attack.
When you instead have your data stored on the cloud, the servers are managed elsewhere which takes one of the aspects of cybersecurity out of your hands. Not only does it make your business more secure, it also frees up critical time for your IT team who are then free to make cybersecurity upgrades to other areas of the business.
- Step up your physical security
Don’t forget that physical security has a huge role to play in your data security. This might seem counterintuitive but remember that your business likely also stores paper copies of key information, which could be at risk if you don’t have high levels of physical security. It is important, then, to have security doors and code entry systems put in place at your work environment.
Additionally, remember that is important to put physical defenses in place outside of your office. For example, as UK security experts Maltaward state here in this blog, if you have a parking lot, it can be extremely valuable to put concrete barriers in place to restrict access to only people who are supposed to be there. Car parks can be popular places for criminals to conduct surveillance at your company.
- Put the right resources into cybersecurity
Ultimately, you need to be aware that cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated all the time. It is no longer possible to simply have a firewall and anti-virus software to keep your business secure. Businesses of all sizes need to be putting the correct resources into their security to minimize the risk of suffering an attack.
Proactive cybersecurity and working with professionals in the industry can help to ensure that your data is as secure as possible.
- Educate your staff
Remember that your staff are an important line of defense against cyber criminals, and they need to know how to spot and defend against potential attacks. It is vital to provide the whole of your team with training about the latest techniques being used by cyber criminals, and the tactics and scams that individuals need to be aware of.
Sadly, staff errors are still the most common reason for cyber-attacks being able to take place. This could include anything from weak passwords to falling for phishing emails. In any case, many of these issues could be easily resolved with training.
Written by: Mike James, BOSS contributor
