While small businesses may not experience a firewall attack or a hacker implanting code in their systems, as has happened with large corporations, they still have information that is attractive to criminals. “Typically, when hackers go after SMBs, they are going after personal identifying information of people who work there,” Falcon says. “And there’s often a lot more that SMBs can and should be doing to protect themselves.”
Follow these four steps to keep your information safe.
1. Be vigilant about usernames and passwords.
Protecting usernames and passwords is most important because, when thieves have this information, they are able to access all kinds of additional data. Falcon recommends that all passwords should be at least eight characters and include numbers, letters and special characters. System users should have different passwords for different systems, and they should change passwords frequently (every 45 to 70 days as a general rule.)
2. Focus on protecting users, not devices.
Rather than purchasing Internet security systems for each type of device your employees use, look for solutions that will protect every device that one user has. For instance, Falcon recommends Webroot, which will protect a user’s accounts and information on his or her computer, smartphone, tablet and other devices.
3. Install a web monitoring system.
Small business systems are most often hacked when they are infected by malware that comes from an infected website. “Even reputable sites have been hacked and installed with malware, so it’s not as easy as staying away from crazy weight loss sites and not opening spam,” Falcon says. “You need a Web filtering or Web monitoring system that will catch it if a website is trying to do something to your device and will stop it.” Again, Falcon prefers products like Webroot, which is cloud-based and doesn’t interfere with overall system performance.
4. Back up data off-site.
Many small businesses rely on file sharing or syncing services, but those services can’t always replace files that have been hacked. “If your on-site copy is encrypted and automatically syncs to your off-site file, then all you’re doing when you replace it with your backup is restoring it with another infected file,” Falcon says. He recommends a comprehensive off-site backup of data, rather than just a file syncing system — but make sure it’s in a secure location.
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