In recent weeks, Warwickshire Police revealed that as part of its anti-cyber crime initiative ‘Operation Henhouse’, seven arrests have been made in the local area in connection with many cases of online fraud. Although this is of course a positive step forward when it comes to tackling cyber criminals – whose victims regularly include businesses – it’s a sad reflection of the times we live in and how ultimately business owners need to be on their guard.
As such, if you do own a business in the area and have concerns about how you can protect your company, below we’ve explained more about cyber attacks and the steps you can take to prevent them.
What can cyber attacks involve?
In summary, a cyber attack is a malicious attempt by a third-party to get unauthorised access to something that’s online. In the business world, this could involve attackers trying to access your company’s data, your customer data or your internal systems and processes.
Typically, these attacks can lead to the illegal leaking or loss of information, theft of intellectual property or revenue and giving attackers the ability to fraudulently represent you or your customers.
The means in which the attacks can be carried out can also vary. It can be that you fall foul of a fraudulent impersonation of a customer when dealing with them online, or you’re a victim of another scam or a computer virus. More information about the array of different cyber attacks can be found here via the National Crime Agency.
How to prevent and protect your business from cyber attacks
The positive is that there are plenty of steps you can take to help protect your business from such attacks. So with this you might want to roll out some or all of the following:
- Back up your data on secure servers
To help prevent your data being accessed, have it backed up on secure servers. The added benefit here is that if you do suffer any form of leak, you still have your business’s information saved somewhere.
- Use two-factor authentication
It’s likely your staff will need to access certain parts of your business remotely via their devices, so sure this up with additional two-factor authentication. Whether it’s via text message, or an authenticator key, these alongside a password, help to keep your devices and systems more secure.
- Look to the support of third-parties for certain processes
In a similar vein, you could outsource core processes to third-party systems which have additional online security features in place. Everything from your employee finances – delivered for instance through cloud payroll software – through to reporting tools on company performance and even customer service assistance (via Live Chat tools) can be managed this way.
- Train your teams
Alongside automating certain tasks, you should train your employees to make them more vigilant about potential cyber threats, or to at least know what to do if they suspect one could be taking place.
Final thoughts
While some business owners may have concerns about the fact that some of the above will be at a cost, it’s worth treating this as an investment in the futureproofing of your business. What’s more, when compared to the cost of a severe cyber attack, the latter could theoretically be far more substantial.
