Moving your business data and parts of the working process online can make your company more efficient. Unfortunately, the digital world also comes with many risks. According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 39% of businesses in the UK identified a cyber threat that put their company in danger. However, the number could be much bigger if organizations of all sizes understood such threats and had proper means to protect themselves. Every business owner should know what to look out for and how to protect their company and its people. Here are the most common cyber security threats and how to prevent them.
Beware Of Internal Threats To Your Business Data
Even though you should trust your employees and treat everyone with a certain amount of empathy, there might always be someone who feels like you wronged them. In that case, they might want to carry out a vendetta against you. There can also be people who have malicious intentions and could be willing to put your business in danger for their gain. However, your employees might expose the data by an honest accident. To prevent such incidents, keep inactive devices locked away, create a good working environment and give access to data only to those who truly need them.
Protect Your Devices From Malware
Malware is one of the most common threats that could endanger your company. In general, it means that cybercriminals put a harmful code into your system. You can set the code into action by clicking a link, downloading a file, or opening an attachment. Some common malware you can see are computer viruses, ransomware, or spyware. You can protect your business by being careful with your behavior online. You should also ensure that you back up all your data. Companies such as SaaS Protection offer cloud storage that will help you to back up and protect data from Office 365 and Google Workspace.
Teach Your Employees How To Deal With Social Engineering
Social engineering can be extremely dangerous as it can happen online and offline. Social engineers focus on human psychology and try to gain the trust of employees and others. One of the most common examples of social engineering is phishing. However, social engineers can also attempt to impersonate someone you know and take advantage of your trust in that person. They might also try to get close to employees, gain their trust, and misuse their weaknesses. Prevent these incidents by educating your employees and getting technical tools to protect you from the dangers of the internet.
Protect Your Business From More Sophisticated Threats
Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) belong to the more sophisticated forms of cyber threats. Simply, it means that your computer or the whole network is overwhelmed and cannot respond to requests. The main difference between the two is that DoS comes from a singular source. On the other hand, DDoS comes from several sources. When the system freezes and stops working, it can make you stop your business operations until the problem is solved. You can get through the incident by knowing what DoS looks like and having extra bandwidth. However, if you are not sure, turn to professionals who will be able to help.