Cyber FSB

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CYBER PROTECTION

Cyber protection is an extremely important aspect of running a successful business. A hack that causes a significant leak of data, or unsecure business processes that make it easier for a hacking attempt to succeed, can permanently damage your business’s reputation, while also creating significant financial and privacy concerns for any staff or customers affected.

To make sure the data of both your business and your customers stays as safe as possible, you should do whatever you can to make sure your business’s data protection practises and software are as up to date and comprehensive as possible.

To help you make sure that data stays as safe as possible, we’ve put together this guide on improving your business’s cyber protection.

Keeping data secure

Making any sensitive data harder to access is your best first line of defence , and there are many different avenues you can pursue to make data secure.

For example, some of the things you can do to ensure data security are:

Use dedicated password manager software
Ensure firewalls and antivirus software are in place and constantly up to date.
Regularly test your systems for vulnerabilities

Some businesses will make use of many different programmes, websites and computers throughout a working week, meaning that you’ll need to make use of a wide variety of unique passwords to keep information secure. With so many to remember, password managers can be very useful.

When you provide your logins to the software, it will randomly generate a unique password for each login. The data is secured through encryption, and because there is only one unique master password giving access to the software, it is much harder for someone to steal your data.

Any business that operates using the internet, or is in some way connected to the internet, can be at risk of attack. Hackers are always on the lookout for exploitable vulnerabilities, or openings left by a lack of firewall and antivirus software. Similarly, security experts are also making sure to stay at the forefront of the industry to keep your data secure.

Making sure your antivirus software is up to date means you’re keeping up with any newly discovered vulnerabilities, or newly created viruses, worms, and Trojans, which in turn protects your data.

Hold data externally.

Whether it’s an incident beyond your control that leads to data loss, or you have actively been targeted by hackers, and data has been stolen by ransomware, there are simple ways that you can keep your data secure and ensure business continuity in a worst-case scenario.

You should look into setting up a cloud storage account with your preferred provider. By holding data externally like this, it ensures that any physical hack that affects your hardware still means you can access vital data. Simply transfer to a new device, log in, and re-download any data that you need to access.

You could also consider doing this as part of a more comprehensive data protection plan. For example, keeping physical copies of information where possible, performing a physical backup of your PCs as you set them up, and a backup of your server at longer, fixed intervals such as every 6 months or every year.

Cybersecurity training

Another great way to ensure that your data stays as safe as possible in the long term is making sure that your staff are aware of what industry best practise is for keeping data secure, as well as a general overview of the importance of data security.

It’s especially important that staff are trained, because the UK government may implement changes to existing policy, such as potential fines for data breaches. If staff are unaware of this, and their actions unintentionally lead to a data breach, your business would be financially liable for damages.

You could organise specific cybersecurity training events to ensure this, or perhaps even organise an away day at a conference led by industry experts on the importance of cyber protection and how businesses can ensure that they’re as safe as possible.

How FSB can help with your cyber protection?

Making sure data is secure is vital for your business and your customers. A breach can be extremely damaging for all the affected parties, so it’s important you do what you can to stay safe.

Our FSB Cyber Protection service is there to provide the support and guidance you need to stay up to date with your security processes. Benefits of this service include:

Easy access to specialist advice helplines
£10,000 cover for third party Data and Cyber Liability claims
Easy access to online information on a variety of data and cyber security matters

If you’d like to find out more about this service and how it can help you, please visit our FSB Cyber Protection web page. The FSB Cyber Protection service is included as standard with our Business Essentials membership. Please take a look at our package comparison page to find out about other benefits of our membership packages.