by Sarah-Louise Burns, Maildistiller
As I ponder Get Safe Online Week it seems like a good time to share my top five tips on how businesses can be safer online?
1. Cover all Bases
At the very least, implement an anti-virus protection and conduct regular scans to maintain system security. If employees bring their own devices into the office or access the office network from home or access their work emails on their smartphones make sure these devices are protected too to avoid leaving your system open to threats.
2. Educate Employees on Safe Passwords
This year alone, nothing has been more evident than the need to use strong, unique passwords. Big names in the industry such as Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox and Gamingo have all experienced security breaches making it clear that there is a need to educate employees on the subject.
3. Don?t assume that because you?re a small business you won?t be targeted by cybercriminals?
Small businesses are often targeted because they are less likely to have multiple defence resources to protect against threats. As a business, you are obligated to implement measures to protect customer information not to mention your own sensitive data such as financial records and intellectual property. If you handle this data, encryption is a necessary requirement for the storage and transmission of it.
4. Make it Official
If you haven?t already, draw up an internet security policy for employees to manage threats, encompassing the use of social media activity, USB sticks, own devices and so on. Additionally, this policy should include plans and procedures that would come into effect in the event of a security breach and how this will be dealt with.
5. Apply some Common Sense
Be suspicious of emails and their attachments as this is an easy way for hackers to be invited into your system. Some phishing emails are easy to spot because of grammatical errors but hackers are getting increasingly smart in their malicious activities. Your bank is not going to email you a password, ask you to login for updates or download an attachment. If I receive an email that I suspect I always search some of the details from the email and often if the email is not legitimate others will have received it too.
Sarah-Louise is a recent Graduate in Communication, Advertising and Marketing from the University of Ulster snapped up by Maildistiller, a leading Cloud? Email Security? vendor who began their venture as a small start-up in Belfast. Maildistiller now operate in over 23 countries worldwide.
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