Avoid Data Breach

While businesses are increasingly aware of the many dangers that cyber-attacks can present to their company, it seems that they still aren’t entirely sure how to deal with data loss or breaches. The majority of modern businesses workings are dealt with online, and if a malware attack or other bugs enter their network, they can be left completely crippled.

You can minimize the risk of a data breach and ensure your company is well equipped to deal with the fallout by follow a few simple steps:

  1. Understand the Threats – Be proactive and make sure that you and your employees understand the risks they face. Identifying the most sensitive and important data in your network so that you can devise a plan to back it up before an attack occurs.
  2. Protect Yourself – Making sure that adequate security measures are in place in case of an attack is crucial.
  3. Keep Updated – Meet regularly with your board of directors, your company’s CEO, and your I.T. security team to keep everyone updated on potential security and online threats. This is a good way to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that all parties are prepared for a potential breach.
  4. Test Yourself – The best way to determine how ready you are for an attack is a drill.
  5. Train Your Staff – Reduce employee mistakes and negligence in the handling of sensitive information with regular training and awareness programs. This can help to prevent any careless errors such as opening an e-mail containing data-destroying malware.
  6. Security Team – Select a security leader and apoint an expert staff to be ready todeal with incident response. Should your company fall victim to an online threat, having a unified team to deal with the issue will ensure a quick response.

Password Practice to Adopt

Here are 5 easy tips to help keep your accounts safe.

  • Use different passwords for your email, online banking, etc. Re-using passwords is risky, you run the risk of someone gaining access to all your information by just using one password.
  • Use a mix of numbers, symbols, upper and lower case letters in your password to make it harder for someone to guess.
  • Create a unique password that’s unrelated to your personal information and uses a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols.
  • Make sure you have your information up-to-date, so that you can receive emails in case you need to reset your password. If possible, add a recovery phone number to receive password reset codes via text message.
  • Don’t leave notes with your passwords and the corresponding site where people can easily see them and use them to compromise your accounts. If you choose to save passwords in a file on your computer, create a name for the file that won’t give it away.