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Facing The Threat Of Cyberattacks

The impact of a conflict can spread much further than the countries at its center. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has already seen consequences for the global economy, cultural events, and more.

The U.S. has imposed several sanctions on Russia as a consequence of the invasion, leading security professionals to warn of increased cybersecurity threats at this time. These types of attacks are designed to cause severe disruption, potentially affecting individuals as well as businesses and organizations.

While the risk to small businesses is low, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re fully protected against cyber attacks and know what threats to look out for.

Take a look at the following steps to take to protect your business from cyber attacks.

Follow Cybersecurity Best Practices

It’s easy to take online security for granted, but there are a lot of basic measures you can take to help protect your business, as well as your personal accounts and information. Give your business additional security by adopting measures such as:

Multifactor Authentication

Multifactor authentication will make it harder for intruders to get into your accounts. You’ll need to confirm your ID when logging in through text message or another method to give your account some added protection.

Use Unique, Complex Passwords

Using the same passwords for all of your accounts and systems puts everything at risk if your password was leaked somehow. Using unique, complex passwords for all of your accounts provides you with a lot of protection. Creating strong passwords should be advised to everyone within your business, including customers if they have an online account with you.

Protect Files

Encrypting your files may be necessary if you deal with personal data. Creating a data management plan should help you decide how you’ll store different types of data, so that you can put the right protection in place for your files if needed.

Ensure Portable Devices are Fully Secured

If your business issues portable devices such as laptops, phones, tablets, etc., you should ensure that the devices are fully secured.

Provide Awareness Sessions to Employees

Raising employee awareness is an effective strategy for preventing cyber attacks. Attacks can happen as a result of human error, such as clicking links in a phishing email or using a weak password. By educating your team about the risks and how to prevent them, you can boost your company’s defenses.

Run Software Updates

Updates may be a source of frustration, but they are necessary to ensure your systems benefit from the most up-to-date protection. From your antivirus products to your applications, make sure your everything is running the latest versions. As new threats emerge, companies are quick to release new updates that put protection in place and keep systems secure.

Make Flexible Working a Secure Way to Work

Many businesses have adopted flexible working because of world events. Employees may work from home, in the office, or a combination of both. However, your network and data could be compromised because of your employees' home networks.

Reviewing IT security for both office and home can ensure that flexible working remains a secure option for your business.

Ensure Your Backup System Is Robust

A system outage can have some serious consequences for your business. Having plans in place to back up your system and data in an emergency can give you confidence that your business can continue to operate after an incident.

While cloud computing provides a simple way of backing up your files, you should also consider using secure external drives to back up your most important documents.

Consult with IT Security Experts

As a small business, you may find the prospect of cybersecurity overwhelming. Outsourcing your IT management can help ensure you have up-to-date protection in place that meets your business needs. It can also mean expert help 24-hours a day, helping your company resume services quickly in the event of an outage.

Working with an IT company can help protect you from the latest threats and deal with monitoring and updates on your behalf.

Insure Your Business

Business insurance is a must to protect your business from many threats. Business insurance not only protects your premises, equipment, etc., but it can also protect you from liability claims that could be made against your business. Being without it leaves you at risk of some significant costs if something were to happen.

It will be vital in the event of a cyber attack where your business is interrupted or you have to deal with a data breach. Cyber liability is important for small businesses, giving you extra security. Now is a good time to check your policy and make sure it provides your business with everything it needs.

Calhoun Agency is an independent insurance agency specializing in different insurance, including cyber liability. If you want to find out more about any of our business insurance services, request a quote today and our team will be in touch.