Are You Leaving Your Business Open To Hackers?

You may not even realise it, but the cyber door to your important documents and data could be wide open, allowing easy access to hackers.

You wouldn’t leave the door to your office open at the end of the day, effectively inviting burglars to enter your premises and fill their swag bag with your expensive equipment. So, why are businesses still allowing themselves to be open to hackers?

Whatever the size of your company, hackers can pose a serious threat to your business

Whatever the size of your company, hackers can pose a serious threat to your business – which alongside private and important information being leaked, could also be extremely costly. Even the biggest companies can fall victim to hackers. In May 2014 online marketplace eBay suffered a data breach, in which 145 million customers’ personal details were stolen. And they are far from alone!

Most recently controversial dating site Ashley Madison saw its users’ records stolen, with hackers threatening to leak members’ personal information. This wasn’t only an embarrassing situation for the company, but for the users who are now facing their use of the infidelity site becoming public knowledge.   

[easy-tweet tweet=”60% of businesses surveyed had suffered a data breach in the past year” user=”comparethecloud” usehashtags=”no”]

Such situations won’t only leave the company and those involved red faced, it can also have a serious financial impact. A government report showed that 60% of businesses surveyed had suffered a data breach in the past year. The worst of these attacks were costing businesses up to £115,000.

So how can you ensure you are protected from hackers?

If you understand your companies’ weak spots, you can build a stronger defense. So, first it is important to understand how information can get into the hands of hackers. Although they are coming up with new and inventive ways all the time, there are a few common ways they can gain access. Weak passwords, malware attacks – an infected website, USB drive or application delivering software that can capture keystrokes, passwords and data, phishing e-mails – official looking emails that prompt you to enter your password or click links to infected websites, or they may simply pretend to be you to reset passwords.

There are several simple ways to protect your company against hackers, such as long complicated passwords that differ for each account and avoiding automatically clicking through to external sites.

[easy-tweet tweet=”One of the biggest threats to security lies with the devices employees use” user=”comparethecloud” hashtags=”cloudsecurity”]

However, one of the biggest threats to security lies with the devices employees use. These are the ideal places for malicious software to worm their way into your corporate network. The best form of defense against this is to set up a policy for device usage and install web-protection software. 

As important as it is to implement the above, these may not be entirely foolproof, especially when you rely on your entire workforce following procedure to protect the company.

The most effective way to protect your documents (especially the most important and vital information) from hackers is by using data storage, which will keep your information both safe and accessible. It is a requirement that certain data is stored responsibly, and choosing the right storage provider is important.

Knowing your sensitive data is secure means you can focus on other areas of the business, with the peace of mind that you won’t face a costly, embarrassing, or difficult situation.