Updated on Jan. 10, 2020
What is the most important part of running a business besides starting it and initially setting up the right contacts and operations? Keeping it all together, of course. You have to establish an adequate management with proper key personnel in place. You also want to make sure that you keep track of KPIs and business operational results. However, it all can eventually go in vain without an appropriate security system. Why is that so? What are the dangers and how to avoid them? Read this piece to find out!
Physical threats
The most basic, the most straightforward, yet still frequently neglected type of danger is physical. This includes all sorts of unauthorized entrance to the company’s buildings and physical assets. Fortunately, ways of protecting against this are quite common and self-explanatory:
- Regulate access. This can be achieved by distributing as few keys to buildings as possible, and installing control systems, such as personalized key cards.
- Upgrade your locks, doors, and windows, and hire security staff.
- Destroy important documents (e.g. by shredding) before disposing of them.
Digital threats
These threats are usually unperceivable, which makes some business owners consider them less noteworthy. A huge and costly mistake! Digital environment is today’s hunting ground for an array of cyber criminals in search of easy money. Considering that little to no modern companies can exist without some sort of digitization, you’d do your business a big favor by seeing into the matter of its cyber security.
Online threats come in all shapes and sizes. For example, you can read one of our earlier articles about common hacking attacks. Further still, new types of attacks emerge constantly. For instance, cryptojacking, a type of cyber crime that made its bow recently with the rise of cryptocurrencies popularity. So today, we will mostly concentrate on general rules that will help you defend against the majority of threats, and will not delve too deep into specifics.
Identify sensitive data and evaluate its current state
Before establishing a cyber security system, you have to figure out the focal points for it. What kind of information that your business puts online may cause you damage or lost revenues if obtained by third parties? How difficult is it currently to get ahold of such data for malefactors? With these questions answered, you will know exactly what to protect, and how to prioritize the security measures.
Limit access to the sensitive data
First of all, ensure that no data can be obtained by simply getting into one of your company’s work devices. For this, have different strong passwords for each department and make a rule to change them periodically.
Second, set up a firewall to protect your network against direct attacks. Also, it is a sound idea to utilize a corporate VPN at this point, such as VPN Unlimited Team. Not only will it bring numerous opportunities for your company by itself (read more in our piece about business-oriented VPNs), but it will also encrypt all the passing online traffic. This means that even if hackers find a gap in your defenses and manage to get their hands on your data, they won’t be able to decipher and use it.
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Install regular data backups
A prudent businessman should never forget the adage about eggs and a single basket when it comes to sensitive information. Reasons may vary. For one, not all malefactors want to cash in on your data by selling it to third parties. Ransomware like WannaCry and Petya have shown that it’s not uncommon for hackers to earn money by selling data back to its rightful owners! Or you may just fall victim to a glitch in your storage server deleting some of your information.
Whatever the situation, such can easily be avoided by using file backups. It’s especially easy nowadays considering all sorts of free cloud storage services available online. Just make a rule to systematically upload your corporate data to one of them. Or two, for that matter, or however many you’ll feel confident about.
Social threats
Finally, no preparations are able to help when human factor kicks in. If your employees don’t know the company’s security rules, don’t understand what’s expected of them, or don’t respect the importance of data protection, crisis is inevitable. Passwords lying around written on pieces of paper, keys to important facilities constantly getting lost, and your company’s confidential info being a matter of discussion on public pages on Facebook.
To avoid such a mess, make sure you spend enough resources on worker training, and that every stakeholder within your company is on the same page regarding security. Everyone must know and appreciate their part in the company’s security system, and understand how to do their job without putting sensitive corporate data at risk. Developing a response plan for your company would be a solid idea, too. This way, you will avoid confusion if something goes south, and will be able to start fixing the problem faster.
Still have questions about corporate security? We’ll be glad to answer them in the comments, or feel free to check our other blog posts!