Cyber security is a major issue facing businesses today. But too few companies really understand the threat until it’s too late. What follows is some advice on how to beef up your cyber security. But don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you think.

Encrypt Customer Data

Recently, a major cybersecurity firm conducted a survey of medium-sized businesses. They wanted to find out whether medium size businesses thought that their customer data was worth protecting. Astonishingly, they found that 45 percent of companies didn’t think their data were valuable enough to be targeted.

pixabay.com

What was interesting about the survey was that it wasn’t that businesses didn’t have valuable customer data. It was that they couldn’t see how it could be used by criminals to their advantage. Neither could they see how costly disaster recovery might be.

Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to encrypt customer data. Search Cloud Provider has an article on the data encryption options available to companies.

Monitor Your Network

Everything that comes in and out of your network should be supervised by software. Otherwise, you run the risk of exposing your business to all sorts of malware.

www.flickr.com

Your company should use a range of solutions, from host intrusion detection software to anti-virus. Remember, anti-virus software isn’t what it used to be. Now companies have to employ a range of solutions if they’re going to protect themselves against threats in real time. Unfortunately, the nature of attacks has changed significantly. The threat has moved away from viruses and into other domains, like ransomware and phishing.

Limit Access To Your Network And Block All Unnecessary Sites

Restricting access to your network is essential if you want to maintain tight security. One way to do this is to ensure that only the people who need to have access to certain data have access.

www.flickr.com

You should also consider blocking certain, non-essential sites. Right now, about 54 percent of companies say that they block social media on their business networks. But this isn’t just because they’re concerned about their workers slacking off. It’s because social media represents a genuine security risk. According to Chron, Facebook has become prime real estate for scammers and con artists. That video or news story your colleague wants to read might look harmless enough. But hackers are now using this type of content an infection vector. It’s one thing to have your personal PC infected by a Trojan horse. It’s quite another to have an entire business network brought down because of malware.

Be Picky On ISPs

The security of your business is only as strong as the company that is providing your internet service. But, different ISPs have different security arrangements. Some just compete on speed and price. And that’s fine, perhaps, for private use. But when the operations of your company are on the line, it pays to look a little further than these standard metrics.

www.flickr.com

Some ISPs also offer additional security to business customers. For instance, ISPs can block incoming connections over well-known, but risky ports. (Port 139 is a good example). They can also block some sites by eliminating their DNS address automatically.