5 Tips to Fortify Any Business Against Crippling Cyber Attacks

10/28/2016
Hackers are not only an issue for celebrities with embarrassing photos they do not want public. Large corporations are also victims of cybersecurity breaches, and it is an on-going problem that needs a solution. Trade secrets, internal emails, even unremarkable communications between colleagues can be accessed by criminals and become a major crisis. As recently as May 27, MySpace passwords were stolen for a price of $2,800, putting the company in a bad light and users at risk.
 
Cybersecurity breaches can happen at any time to any company.
 
"In 2015, 62% of organizations reported having security breaches," said Jason Porter, the security solutions vice president of AT&T. "Forty-two percent of these businesses said the negative impact on their business was significant. Yet 66% of organizations have no effective incident response plan."
 
Don’t wait untill your business gets bootstrapped to resolve this problem and to protect your valuable data from outside hackers.
                                                                                                              
The following five tips from SNDR – an app that allows users to send encrypted and secure texts and emails, files – will help small businesses avoid cyber attacks and protect their valuable data.
 
1) Back-up your data to an external device several times a day and store it for months. Ransomware is spreading like wildfire. If infected, it will lock you out of your data, demanding money to unlock it, and most likely transmitting it to other buyers in the meantime. If you have a backup, you're in good shape to recover your information. Also, don't use the infected machine without doing a full factory reset!
 
2) Make sure all of your devices are using full disk or full device encryption with a strong password. If you lose a laptop, phone or tablet this will make sure that anyone who has it doesn't get access to your accounts or other data on the device.
 
3) Never reuse a password and use a sentence that you can memorize as your password instead of a jumble of characters and numbers you'll need to write down. Here's an example: "TodayIsTheDayToStartSecurityIn2016!" Even better, come up with something with a modifier to the end that is specific to a website or app: "CorrectHorseBatteryStapleAmazon.com!!"
 
4) Make sure you have administrative access to all online accounts and services your employees or consultants use. If they leave the company you want to make sure they don't abuse the service or lock you out.
 
5) Watch out for new credit card fraud schemes. Now that the credit card chip is here, criminals are getting craftier with Internet fraud. If you are in the business of selling or buying items online, be aware of the latest Internet fraud techniques: triangulation, re-shipping, phishing, etc. and how to protect yourself from falling victim from these seemingly valid transactions.
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