5 Ways to Protect Your Business from Cyber Criminals

In the interconnected world we live in today, it’s easy for hackers and identity thieves to access your business’ valuable data. In fact, cyber attacks rank first among the threats in doing business in the United States, according to the World Economic Forum 2016 Global Risks Report. Avoid compromising the safety of your company’s information by following the tips below:

Use a Strong Password

The more complicated your password is, the harder it will be for a thief or someone who is searching for you to hack into your company’s system. For good measure, you can even use a password manager to ensure the strength and integrity of your passwords across all computers in your company.

Pay Attention to Your Password Reset Information

It’s not enough that you create a hard-to-guess password—you must protect its reset settings, too. To do so, you can use a separate password recovery email address that’s made solely for that purpose. This will make it more difficult for hackers to unlock your primary email address and access all your precious information.

Enable Full Disk Encryption on Company Devices

One way to prevent your hard drive from being cloned is to enable full disk encryption. This works by scrambling all the data on your drives so that it’s virtually incomprehensible. It also ensures that your browser history, downloaded email messages, passwords, and chat logs are safe from thieves. You can do this using BitLocker for windows or enabling FileVault for Mac.

Encrypt USB Flash Drives and External Hard Drives

USB flash drives and external hard drives are convenient to use when sharing big files with employees in the office. But because they’re small, they can be prone to being stolen or lost. So it’s best that you encrypt the data stored in these devices so that unauthorized people won’t be able to access it. Just make sure you brief your employees on how to access these encrypted files.

Make Sure Your Cloud Storage is Well-Guarded

Cloud storage services are great to use if you want to share files quickly and remotely with a client or a co-worker. However, data in cloud storage devices can be easily accessed by cyber criminals. Protect your business by encrypting the data you upload or using a cloud program that manages that setting for you. You can also use peer-to-peer private synchronization services like BitTorrent Sync to share your files securely.

These are just several tips to keep your company safe from online fraud. If you want to learn more, here are other practical tips to protect your enterprise from data breach. Because we live in an interconnected, digital world, you can never be too careful.