Online Security Advice for Small Businesses

Gone are the days that the only threat that small businesses faced was the threat of their trading competition. Now you have much more on your plate, with the ever-increasing threat of online attacks that have been publicized more and more of late. Last year there were some very high profile examples of large businesses that were targeted by cyber criminals.

The attack on Talk Talk was heavily reported on and it apparently cost them £60m and over 100,000 customers. The scary part is, large companies like Talk Talk have more money at their disposal to be able to set up security for their systems. Smaller businesses don’t have the same revenue and yet still must responsibly look after their customer data. If your business stores any kind of customer data, then you need to be very wary about the risks that this can impose upon you.

One thing that goes without saying, if you have no extreme need to store data then don’t store it. Whether it is payment details or customer addresses and contact details, the loss of any sensitive data could spell disaster for your business. Make sure that you have all of the necessary lines of protection if you do store customer data.

You can do this by keeping up to date with what is going on in the cyber security world. Subscribe for updates from cyber security experts and technology news sites and find out about the best software that is available. Whilst it may seem costly to start with, if you compare it to losing your customer base through reputational damage, it is probably more than worthwhile. Cyber attacks are becoming more and more frequent and from stolen data to manipulation of data, there are always new methods being used to commit cyber crime.

Even if you don’t fall victim to a cyber attack, it is always important to have a good back up plan in place. You can lose data in a variety of different ways, from accidentally deleting a file to a hardware failure. Unless you like to take a high-risk gamble with your files then you are best advised to have recovery options in place. If your back up plans fail and you are unable to recover files then you can always try a data recovery software free download to try and get them back.

Losing files can be an absolute nightmare and if they aren’t recoverable then you will regret not taking the necessary precautions. Whether you lose important business files, customer data or even personal things like sentimental photos, having a good back up plan is critical. Don’t be caught short when it comes to online security, sometimes paying that little bit extra for a more expensive web host for your website will be the best thing you ever did. The reputation damage companies can suffer from cyber attacks is substantial so make sure that you do everything within your power to ensure your company isn’t targeted.