Cybersecurity should be a priority for any business owner — 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses, while 60% of small businesses who experience a cyber attack go out of business within six months, Fundera reports. Financially, cybercrime costs small and medium businesses over $2.2 million collectively every year. Strengthening cyber security is essential to protect your business from both hackers and financial loss.
Invest in managed IT services
Continually working to keep on top of cyber threats and risks can be challenging for businesses. Fortunately, managed IT services provide dedicated teams for 24/7 technical support, working to strengthen cybersecurity, anticipate and prevent problems from occurring, and fix any issues that do occur as soon as possible. You’re therefore free to focus on running your business while experienced technology consultants provide improved network security around the clock.
Choose strong passwords
Strong passwords are essential for protecting your data and preventing identity theft and financial fraud. For this reason, it’s important to teach your employees to create unique and strong passwords. Ideally, strong passwords should be a minimum of ten characters and consist of a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces. Also, avoid using personal information or real words in the password. Alternatively, your employees can use a password generator to create strong passwords for them. A reputable password management application can also be used to store passwords so there’s no need to memorize them. Only a master password is needed to unlock the app. Your employees should also know to never write down their passwords for safekeeping.
Use a business VPN
At least 400 million businesses around the world use a VPN (virtual private network), and this figure is set to increase by as much as 150% due to the rise in remote working. While regular VPNs keep personal web connections private and secure, business VPNs are specifically designed to encrypt business data and provide security against cyberthreats. With a business VPN, employees are able to safely join private business networks from remote locations without jeopardizing private employee or business data.
Prioritizing cybersecurity is a must for all businesses. Investing in managed IT services, choosing strong passwords, and using a business VPN are key ways to protect your employees, IT systems, and business as a whole against common threats.
