Cyber Threats Every Business Needs to Protect Themselves From

All businesses need security to try and ward off threats from hackers who are trying to get vital information about private matters, and maybe bank details to help themselves to your cash. It is very difficult to say it will never happen to you, but there are some ways you can help to reduce the risks.

Take Care With Emails

Never click on a link in an email that is from someone you do not know. There are two ways hackers use this very popular method of scamming. Firstly they will try to get you to part with sensitive information that may give them access to your files and systems. Secondly, they can infect your computer with viruses. Once your system is infected it can be very hard to get it put right, and a lot of important information can be lost in the process. Always make sure your systems are backed up regularly and make sure your employees are aware they should not be clicking on links that are not from a trusted source. Have a good anti-virus software installed, and make sure all your software is updated when the opportunity arises/ The developers will send an update when they have discovered a security problem, and the update is often an extra protection for you.

Ransomware

These are exactly as the name suggests, a hacker asking for a ransom to be your systems back in order. Usually, all you get is a message on your screen telling you that they want an amount of money to unlock your systems. What often happens is they are asking for quite a small amount, say $200, which people will pay to get their business up and running again. What they have done id send that same message to many thousands of people, and it does not take many to pay the ransom for them to have collected a fortune. These days, they often request that the ransom is paid in a cryptocurrency as these are not so easily traced.

Data Protection for your business

Banking Viruses

These often arrive by email and look genuine enough. They direct you to a link and even that will look like it is your bank, but beware. Most banks will never ask you to log in from an email link and if you follow one of these, you are handing the hacker your bank login details. That will give them free access to your finances. The best way to avoid this happening is to limit access to bank accounts to as few people as possible. You might also want to consider micro-segmentation for all areas of your business that are sensitive. This would make it much easier to limit the access of employees to just some areas that they need, and much harder for the hackers to get total information from your business systems. These are just three of the most common cyber threats, there are many more and wherever possible you need to take every precaution to make sure your business does not fall prey to them.

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