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Online businesses around the world are finding themselves under significant threats daily. Whether it is dangerous third parties who are becoming more hungry and malicious in their attempts to get consumer data or cyber criminals who are looking to exploit holes in online businesses and ruin them financially. These attempts can come through phishing scams, data breaches, or cyber-attacks that will attempt to penetrate your business’s network and cause a huge amount of damage. Forbes reported that businesses that suffer a cyber attack can close permanently within 3 months, and companies are holding consumer data more than ever.
With oil also becoming less valuable than data, companies are expecting to be under siege more than ever. There has never been a time to get stronger for a business. Last year, over 53 million people were affected by data breaches suffered by breaches, which has inevitably shifted how businesses have to operate. Whether it is through GDPR or security regulations, businesses have to be much savvier and stronger. The pandemic has shifted how businesses need to operate too, pushing the world more digital as opposed to brick-and-mortar. As businesses made this crucial transition, not all businesses became stronger. A big threat rose in cybercriminals that were becoming smarter and more inventive in how they could attack businesses of all sizes.
Businesses have been making crucial steps to becoming stronger and more protected as they operate online. This means shoring up internal processes and protection and changing employees’ behaviors towards cybersecurity. Here are the best ways that an online business can become stronger and more protected as it operates day-to-day:
Implement Protection Against Viruses
Businesses can find free options for viruses, or even a security suite that doesn’t cost as much when you think about the ROI that it presents. An antivirus works perfectly for all the employees in a business, being a protective method against viruses like malware and ransomware as well as protecting against phishing scams. An antivirus can monitor an employee’s downloads, uploads, and the health of their PC and work system whilst solving pain or infections that occur. If malware or ransomware infects and employee’s PC, you can run into the issue of having data breaches through sensitive files and then be accessed by hackers.
Install A Proxy Server
A huge tool for a business could be a proxy server – this piece of security and technology can become the HUB for your online business, providing a residential IP while browsing the Internet and cutting down the risk of being targeted by a hacker or third-party due to your IP address identifying you as a business. A proxy server can also work as a filter and control point for a group of employees, as they get better protection through anonymity but also security through the filter. A proxy server can filter out harmful data and files that an employee may access or have, keeping the entire company safe and leaving the whole business less exposed to cyber criminals.
Firewalls Protect Your Business
Having strong firewalls protecting your sensitive business files is crucial. Whether it is the protective layer against your employees or servers, a firewall works as a monitoring screen against incoming and outcoming traffic. This traffic could contain malicious content that could infect an entire network, so a firewall can be a pivotal part of making an online business stronger. Whilst they could be on the expensive side or part of a full online security package, firewalls seem like the prime option to protect business data.
Encourage Smarter Password Management
It is a usually scene to see bad password management – that isn’t immune to going to your employees too. Whether it is not fulfilling enough characters, using the same password for work and recreation, or just being lax in where they keep them noted, bad password management can tear down a weak business. It is important to enforce strong and structured password management, coaching your employees to adhere to randomized, long, and varied passwords for different accounts. The best way to do this could be by using a password manager, which generates, saves, and auto-fills passwords for different accounts and keeps them secured.
Authenticate To Mitigate Risk
Two-factor authentication is something that is being adopted by the best and biggest companies around – it is certainly something that can work for your business. By having your employees use a two-factor authentication method when logging into company accounts, you rule out the potential risk of having passwords end up in the wrong hands and giving access to sensitive data to bad actors. Two-factor authentication works through an RSA token or an application that will generate a code to authenticate that the user is the real person who is trying to log in. You can now do it all through your phone, making it an easy, simple, and secure method for strengthening your online business.
