When you go into business, there may be many different factors that motivate you to choose the specific area, product, or service you want to provide, but the overarching factor in choosing business at all is to make money.
So, when the prospect of hackers stealing data for financial gain is considered, this immediately becomes a major threat to the future of your enterprise.
To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, this handy guide has compiled all the essential information you are going to need to keep your business safe on the world wide web. In addition, outsourcing managed it services may also help protect your business from cyber attacks and data breaches.
Let’s talk money
To begin with, you need to get a better understanding of the real cost of a data breach.
A data breach can set your business back in more ways than one, due to the consequences and fallout of the hack and, specifically, the information that is taken. This could include sensitive customer information, company information, or important private files. Not only will this be costly to repair the damage caused, but your company’s reputation will also be under fire if sensitive personal information is accessed.
Endpoint security
Endpoint security is often referred to as the front line in the fight against cyber attacks and hackers in the online community. Also known as endpoint protection, McAfee outlines how these are systems that protect computers and other devices on a network or in the cloud from security threats, building on the traditional anti-viral software of the past to encompass a changing online landscape. You may need to invest in managed it solutions to ensure that your data security system is properly installed and monitored. Having a dedicated it support team can also help manage and protect your business data.
One of the factors that makes endpoint security so uniquely effective is that it not only protects traditional items such as laptops and tablets, but it also facilitates hardware such as Wi-Fi printers and company servers. This means that if you are sending, for example, a contract to be printed off at a Wi-Fi printer, a hacker is prevented from intercepting this data when confronted with endpoint protection.
When it comes to protecting your business, this needs to be your first point of call and where your money should be going. With the increasing popularity of business models that require staff to bring in their own devices to work on, having endpoint protection means that no matter how many devices are in your office, no hacker can get close to the data on any of them.
What else can you do?
After you have utilized endpoint security across your online platforms and Wi-Fi capable devices, you need to find other ways to prevent data breaches, so that no loophole or back entrance to your data is exposed. Some ideas to take on board are as follows:
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- Reduce the amount data is transferred between devices. When moving data, it is at its most venerable, so consider putting information on a cloud and having individual logins for each member of staff to use
- Restrict what data (if indeed any) can be downloaded. Once something has been downloaded, the security around it is significantly lessened.
- Similarly, restrict what can be printed out, as it only takes one misplaced piece of paper to be picked up by the wrong person to cause a data breach.
