According to economists and industry experts, data is currently the world’s most valuable asset. This is hardly unexpected, considering that organizations of all scales and sizes rely solely on data to make crucial choices, seize opportunities, develop strategies, and enhance operations. For these reasons, you should make substantial efforts to protect your company’s data.
Unfortunately, online theft is rising as hackers attempt to keep up with technological advancements. As cybersecurity protections are enhanced, so are hackers’ skills and tools. Therefore, getting ahead of them is key to implementing preventative measures to ensure your data safety.
Check the following ways to protect your company data from these cyber criminals:
1. Invest In Data Backup And Recovery Solutions
Keeping your data backed up is critical to preventing catastrophic and sustained data loss. The fundamental objective of backup and recovery is to save your most vital files so the business may continue operations following a data loss incident. To protect your backups against ransomware and other security threats and ensure a speedy recovery, you must align your backup and security strategies. Fortunately, backup and recovery solutions are available on the market nowadays, so taking advantage of such tools is beneficial.
Data loss can happen not only as a result of natural disasters and other catastrophic events but also as a result of cyberattacks. This is where backup and recovery solutions come in handy. When a data loss or complication occurs, backup software can help you maintain your competitive advantage by saving you time and money. However, it’s essential to emphasize that hackers know this obvious company data protection strategy.
Cybercriminals know that your organization’s backups are one of its key defenses against ransomware attacks. Various types of malwares have been designed to search for backups. However, if you apply the most advanced and high-quality backup and recovery solutions, these attacks will not affect your data backup. You can also choose backup as a Service (BaaS), a service provided by third-party companies that can back up your systems to a public, private, or hybrid cloud provider. This is an excellent alternative to on-premise solutions.
2. Always Have Your Systems Encrypted
The power of passwords continues to safeguard your company’s data unimaginably. Therefore, always encrypt your systems using lengthy and difficult-to-guess passwords. The ideal password should contain at least eight characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, a unique symbol, and a number. In addition, avoid storing passwords on company devices, as hackers may penetrate them easily.
Ensure that all your organization’s employees and authorities know about this cybersecurity measure. Create a setting that requires passwords to be re-entered when the data has been idle for a few minutes or when it is no longer being used. This ensures that your data are always secure, even when no employees are accessing them.
Adding strong passwords to your company’s systems and software may not completely deter hackers, but it gives you an advantage. It would be advisable to maintain regular password rotation as much as possible. One excellent option is to use reliable password managers. It would be best if you encouraged everyone to use different passwords on different platforms and software. By doing so, once an attack has occurred on one system, it cannot take data from other applications.
3. Communicate And Train Your Employees
Phishing attacks are crucial topics that employees should be aware of. Having said that, it’s vital to hold a training course for all employees regarding this subject. Cybercrimes are happening worldwide, and your company is invincible to that. Occasionally, one second of complacency can result in catastrophic data loss, and it’s too late to undo the damage.
Therefore, your HR department should collaborate with your internal IT department to organize cybersecurity and data protection educational seminars. Holding frequent sessions to prepare employees for phishing attempts can help prevent breaches. During these discussions, it is critical to emphasize the risks to the company’s reputation and the protection of customer information. Another alternative is to invite an industry expert who can share their knowledge updates and expertise about data safety and educate your employees about the best practices. While this may cost your organization some money, the benefits will be priceless.
4. Download Antivirus Software
Malware and viruses are all over the Internet, and they’ve only grown stronger and more complex over time. It would help if you thought about investing in high-quality antivirus software. This is one surefire approach to protecting your computer from malicious software or unauthorized code. Viruses can quickly infiltrate your systems and files if anti-virus software is not present to act as an inspector and filter.
Nevertheless, an anti-virus program is crucial to ensuring the safety of your data by detecting real-time threats. The anti-virus software will ping and notify you of some suspicious viruses when you click a site, open a file, or receive an email. Various advanced anti-virus programs provide automatic updates, so you can stay protected from the new viruses that emerge daily. Utilize these advanced capabilities and never be stingy or hesitant when purchasing anti-virus software.
Especially with the ever-increasing advertisements, banners, and pop-ups found on most websites, they are all dangerous for your computers. Installing anti-malware and anti-virus software will prevent these attacks from seizing control of your systems. Ensure that these tools are installed on all company-owned devices and frequently updated.
5. Block Unnecessary Sites
Companies require unique websites, platforms, applications, and software to function. Therefore, your company’s computers don’t have to browse websites that offer no operational use. To reduce the chance of a security breach, it is prudent to restrict access to specific online data to only the required individuals. For example, exclude any sites that your business does not require and only keep the ones you utilize for everyday operations. This minor intervention can already have a significant influence on your data protection.
By restricting access to select websites, you can lessen the likelihood that your company’s network will be infected with malware and spyware. Your staff can only access the files necessary for business operations. This maintains data security and helps your workers to concentrate on their work by preventing them from using their work computers for personal purposes and activities. Therefore, you should block unwanted websites and keep your anti-virus software up-to-date.
Conclusion
Fortunately, numerous data protection practices are available, such as those listed above. While hackers attempt to steal your company’s data, you can only increase your security by implementing backup and recovery solutions, encrypting passwords, and educating your employees on cybersecurity best practices. These tactics will ensure that you will not lose your most precious asset, which is your company’s sensitive information. When your data are safe and secure, use them to take your business to the next level.
Check out: What is First-Party Data and How to Build a Strategy?