10 Tips to Protect Your Business Against the Debilitating Effects of Cyber Security Attacks

If you haven’t yet made cyber security a priority for your company, you’re putting your organization in peril. Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated and plentiful. As October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, now is the perfect time to remind you to protect your business from malware, phishing scams, ransomware, Trojan horse viruses, worms, and other malicious tactics and software.

FCC Tips to Help You Protect Your Business From Cyber Security Threats

The FCC recommends that companies do the following ten things to help prevent compromising their data and private information:

1. 1. Train employees in security principles. Educating yourself—and your employees—is the first line of defense that can make a tremendous difference in insulating your company from the devastating effects of data breaches. Laser Lab can help you accomplish this through our cyber security services.
   2. Protect information, computers, and networks from cyber attacks by ensuring they have the latest versions of security software, web browser, and operating system. After any updates, run an antivirus scan to detect for points of vulnerability.
   3. Provide firewall security for your Internet connection, and make sure that employees who work from home protect their home network with a firewall.
   4. Create an action plan to protect company mobile devices. Encrypt device data and install security apps to prevent unauthorized access to data when a device is on. Also, require users to use passwords to unlock their devices.
   5. Make backup copies of important business data and information (such as word processing documents, electronic spreadsheets, customer databases, financial information, and human resources files). Back up data automatically, or at least weekly, and store the copies of the data offsite or in the cloud.
   6. Control physical access to your computers so that unauthorized individuals cannot use them, and create user accounts for each employee. 
   7. Secure your Wi-Fi Networks.
   8. Employ best practices on payment cards, including verifying that banks and payment processing services have the best anti-fraud tools in place. Also, avoid using the same computer to process payments and surf the Internet.
   9. Limit access to data to only the employees who will need it, and limit the authority to install software.
   10. Ask employees to use unique passwords and change them regularly (preferably, every three months). Also, consider using multi-factor authentication that requires additional information before allowing access to your accounts.

Additional Resources to Help You Keep Your Data Secure

The following links have quality information to arm you in the battle against cyber security threats:

• Stop.Think.Connect. Small Business Resources (via The Department of Homeland Security
• Cybersecurity for Small Business (via the Federal Communications Commission)
• Small and Midsize Businesses (SMBs) are Victims of Data Breaches (via Laser Lab)

Don’t Wait! Start Protecting Your Business Today.

Laser Lab is here to help your company avert disaster with our Cyber Security Services. With our training programs for your employees, dark web scans, security risk assessments, security policies, and more, you can gain the peace of mind that you’re taking all the right steps to ensure your data and critical information won’t fall into the wrong hands. Contact us today!