A modern business is expected to handle some amount of data. Whether you’re a one-person operation with a van and a trade, or a huge multinational with offices on multiple continents, customers are going to be providing you with some of their data. Thus, you need to put in measures that will prevent that data from falling into the wrong hands.
According to the government’s sixth annual survey on the matter, around four in ten businesses and a quarter of charities report falling victim to cyber-attacks – and the larger the organisation, the likelier it is that they’ll be targeted. There are specialised insurance products now available, which means that you can claim data protection breach compensation in the event that you are targeted. Ideally, however, you’ll prevent the data from going missing in the first place.
Let’s take a look at some of the key ways in which a business might protect itself against these threats.
Implement GDPR training
Data protection isn’t just ethically desirable; it’s also a legal requirement, too. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation empowers members of the public to take action against a body directly, and hold them account for mishandling of data. Making your workforce aware of this, and how to stay on the right side of the law, is therefore essential. You can do this through regular and thorough training.
Keep Software Updated
Malware can provide outside attackers with a means of accessing the data kept on your servers. Keeping your antivirus software updated will allow it to effectively search incoming data packets for fragments of suspicious code. Updates to your operating system, too, will provide considerable security benefits.
Test your Security Measures
Having an ethical hacker target your systems will allow you to deliberately stress-test them. You can think of this as a third-party audit.
Back-up Remotely
Having data stored in an off-site location will mean that it’s kept safe from real-world threats that might affect your premises, such as fires and natural disasters. Storing everything on cloud servers will also grant you a degree of encryption, making it more difficult for third parties to access it.
Carry out Risk Assessments
Third parties who deal with your company pose a threat. The more of them you deal with, the greater the threat. Insist on ID from people who physically visit your premises, and carry out risk assessments before involving outside contractors with your data.
Practice Password Discipline
Managing passwords can be a pain. For this reason, it’s worth your staff using a password manager to keep track of the changes. You might also use multi-factor authentication to limit access to your more sensitive systems. So, your staff might need to know something (the password), own something (the phone) and be someone in particular (which can be proved with a fingerprint). That way, you can more effectively limit access to sensitive systems, and keep your data well and truly protected.
