5-Step Plan to Prepare and Protect Your Business against Cybercrime

Cybersecurity is not an issue to be dealt with only when your “business’ budget is a bit larger.” Unfortunately, the businesses who think this way are generally the types of businesses that are targets of cybercrime. The most common types of cybercrime are ransomware and phishing. Ransomware is where your data is locked away until you pay a ransom fee, and phishing is where criminals pretend to be someone else to get you to click on a bad link.

If you run a business and cybersecurity has not yet been prioritized, let us change that. Here is a 5-step plan to help you prepare and protect your business against cybercrime.

Training, training, training

Untrained against cybercrime employees should be your priority. Although they would never knowingly do something to damage your business, all it takes is one click for them to bring you down. It is, therefore, critical to train employees to recognize warning signs of cybercrime. Your staff must have regular cyber-security awareness training, from closing RDP links to looking for telltale signs of a scam email.

Use tools available to you

There are a lot of tools out there to help keep your business safe and protected from cyber-criminals. From password managers to multi-factor authentication, VPNs and encryption, there are various options to choose from. With your IT partner, figure out the blend of security tools that work best for you and your business to keep your everyday work safe and protected against cybercriminals.

Practice backing up your data all the time

Do you not have an automated back-up of your everyday data? We cannot stress enough how critical it is to keep MULTIPLE copies of all your data so that you have a fallback option. This way, if you are ever a victim of cybercrime and your data is lost, corrupted, or held for ransom, you can restore a copy of everything you need to keep your business functioning. Another tip would be to constantly check your back-up and not leave your back-up completely unchecked until you need it.

Create a policy, protocol, and procedure in the event of a data breach

Your policy will set out how your business will deal with any form of data breach or cyberattack. In it, include the things your staff must do as a minimum to help keep your business safe. You can do this by way of a company handbook. Regarding your protocol, it is a written plan that contains the procedures your people must follow in the event of a cyber-attack. Lastly, your procedures should include a contact person to alert in case of a breach and what the steps are to block a cyberattack. The trick is in making your policies, protocols, and procedures as accurate as possible so that your employees know what to do in a cybercrime situation.

Bring in experts

All the above could seem a little consuming and confusing; this is why bringing in the IT experts at an early stage to protect your business is always a good idea. From monitoring and maintaining your devices and network to using all the right tools and software to optimize security and staff productivity, don’t hesitate to get the support you need to benefit from a whole array of expertise.