From Optus to Medibank and everything in between, the recent data breaches in which personal information had been stolen have certainly increased public awareness of cyber-attacks and identity fraud.
While Optus and Medibank are large-scale organisations, it’s important to know that small businesses just like yours (and ours!) need to be cautious as we’re not completely in the clear—gosh, can you imagine how damaging a breach could be?!
Living in the digital world, the need to be cyber-safe is at an all-time high—this is why we’re sharing five ways you can protect your business.
Avoid clicking on suspicious links and odd emails
With spam and phishing emails stepping up their game, it’s quite easy to slip up and click on a link that can have negative impacts to your business—particularly as they can often look like a legitimate source.
However, it’s worth knowing that there can be slight alterations to the sender’s email address or the way the contents of the email have been written. If you have any doubt in your mind that an email may be illegitimate, the best option is to avoid clicking on links, opening attachments, and providing any personal information that could be detrimental to you, your business, and your clients.
In the instance you’ve accidentally clicked on something you shouldn’t have, we recommend contacting your IT gurus for advice—early action is the best action!
Know how to prevent or recover from a Ransomware attack
If you haven’t heard of Ransomware, it’s a type of malware designed specifically to disrupt your devices and access your personal data.
To prevent an attack or recover from one, we highly recommend:
- Setting up consistent and resilient backups
- Automatically updating your operating systems and software
- Set up multi-factor authentication for anything and everything possible
- Seek professional advice to conduct audits and secure your devices
Consider your passwords
First and foremost, please do not use any commonly used passwords—for example, 123456789 or qwerty. You should consider creating passwords that are long, unpredictable, and unique to only you.
Better yet—why not set up multi-factor authentication (MFA)? MFA is a security method and is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself against unauthorised and unwelcome access as it required two or more ways to verify your identity.
Educate your team
Your team is one of your most important lines of defence to protect your business from any cyber-attacks. Make sure you’ve implemented internal policies for your employees to understand the importance surrounding this and what steps to take in the event of a breach.
Look into Cyber Insurance
This is something we recommend to all small-to-medium businesses!
Cyber Insurance is a type of insurance policy, which provides protection from financial loss in the event of a cyber-attack—while it’s not a preventative method, it will help cover costs should you need it.