Although the number of data breaches that have affected large companies has decreased over the last year, there is still an alarming amount of breaches that expose customer and company information. If your business falls prey to a data breach, ransomware or other cyberattack, it could inflict irreparable damage to your business as your reputation would be in tatters.
Consumers want to put their money and trust in a place of business that has the right safeguards in place to protect themselves from cyber crimes such as data breaches. Here are some steps your business can take to protect your data at a time where even Panera, Facebook and Under Armour have been successfully breached.
Educate Workers on the Threats
The first step towards keeping your customer, worker and proprietary data under wraps is to ensure that your employees know the big threats that are out there. Roughly 72% of data breaches are caused by phishing scams in the form of fraudulent emails that target employees.
The likes of Snapchat have fallen victim to phishing scams recently as a person sent an email impersonating the company CEO. The email requested payroll information and one employee was duped enough by the legitimate-looking email, exposing employee data. The lesson here is clear–don’t open an attachment or click a link you are not expecting.
You’ll need to educate your workers beyond avoiding phishing scams as you’ll have to implement cybersecurity basics such as password-strengthening tips, two-factor authentication and strong antivirus software. Plus, they should be aware on ways to properly classify and file data, and knowing the basics such as data and web navigation encryption and VPNs are an essential part of overall security prevention and protection.
Follow Industry Security Protocols
Your business should also ensure that it is always up to date with the latest cybersecurity tools necessary to combat any threats that could arise. A good place to start is with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which has a cybersecurity checklist that keeps up with the latest and most sophisticated cyberattacks in the world.
The agency’s goal is “to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive customer information” for every company. FINRA also helps businesses comply with Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulations on risk management; identity theft detection, prevention and mitigation; technology governance; data loss prevention; system change management and more.
Businesses should also restrict which employees have access to what data as each worker should only have access to data that is vital to their jobs. Additionally, your company should conduct tests and audits on a regular basis.
An information security management system (ISMS) consists of a system or processes, documents, technologies and worker who work on risk management and mitigation. Creating an ISMS that follows ISO 27001 — which is the international standard for best ISMS practices — will help you reduce the chances of being breached.
Finding the Right Data Storage Solution
Finally, it is imperative that you partner with a firm that specialises on data backup and storage solutions. You will want a firm that offers high-level security in the form of military-grade encryption, data corruption prevention and recovery solutions. Plus, it should offer agile and flexible deployment and management solutions as scalability is key to the growth of any business.
Our team at BOBcloud work with Ahsay with these tenets in mind, offering you a backup solution that is on the cutting edge of the data management industry. We keep your data secure in Microsoft’s cloud through Azure. We operate out of the UK, but also offer our data backup solutions in the US, Canada and any of the other 50+ locations where Azure is available.