Running a business without adequate data security is a significant risk no one should take. While data breaches aren’t new, many companies are still ignorant of the importance of data security and end up paying a huge price for it. No matter what type of business you run today, it relies on data and it needs to be stored safely.
The year 2017 recorded a very high rate of a data breaches and was termed the “year of data breaches” with 1,202 recorded attacks in 11 months. That said, 2013 still takes the cake when it comes to data breaches as around three billion sets of credentials were exposed during the Yahoo breach. What do these numbers mean, and how do they affect us?
Businesses have no other choice but to pay more attention to data breaches. After all, attackers are coming up with new tricks every day for even simple things like your Wi-Fi password. Even firewalls and antivirus protection are not completely impervious to hackers and intrusion.
The best way to protect your business from data breaches is to plan ahead and be prepared when the time comes. Below, we have highlighted a few simple yet effective ways to safeguard your business against costly data breaches:
Hire a cybersecurity expert
These professionals know what techniques and technologies can protect your business from data breaches. So, if you are outsourcing to keep up with the security challenges faced by your business, we’d recommend hiring a cybersecurity instead.
Use a virtual private network (VPN)
If your company employs remote workers, you would want to secure their connections to your corporate network and resources to prevent the possibility of any untoward incident. Here, a VPN service like PureVPN can prove useful.
What it does is establish an encrypted connection between a users’ device and your business’ remote private network. As a result, they’re able to securely connect to the corporate network remotely from anywhere in the world.
Furthermore, gone are the days when people used to ask “how to get a VPN?” Not only are there many VPNs available which support a variety of payment options, but also they can be set up quickly due to the availability of user-friendly clients and apps.
Educate your employees
Lack of awareness is another huge reason for data breaches. If your employees are not educated about the best security practices, your business is still vulnerable – no matter how complicated your technology is!
Therefore, trainings should be held where your employees are taught about data breaches, how they commonly occur, and the best preventive measures such as identifying suspicious links, not falling victim to social engineering techniques, and backing up data regularly, etc.
Regular data backup
One of the most important ways to prevent data loss is regular backups. In the unfortunate event of a data breach, you might lose access to all or most of your data. And that, quite frankly, can have serious consequences.
Therefore, you must backup all important data on a daily basis. You have many ways to go about this. One is to back up files to another hard-disk, which you can encrypt depending on the OS the host computer uses. The second is to back up files to the cloud, but make sure you use a VPN to make the file transfer as secure as possible.
Data restriction (Role-based access)
Employees are the primary targets for many attackers because they are seen as the weakest link of any company’s cybersecurity. Together with employee education, each employee should only have access to the data necessary for their job. For this, you will have to set up Role-Based Access Control so that even if one employee is attacked, the entire network of your business doesn’t get compromised.
Conclusion
These are just some of the many security measures that you should take to secure your business from a data breach. So, get started with these, and then you can focus on the other more complicated steps for safeguarding your business and its data. Good luck!
