Ways to Protect Your Small Business Online

As a small business owner, a security breach can be devasting. Not only can it result in major theft, but it will also cost money to fix. The loss of customer data can also damage your relationships with clients. In an increasingly dangerous online world, how can you stay safe? Below, we give our tips on protecting your small business online.

Hire an Ethical Hacker

Cybercrime is increasing, and with each day that passes, scams are getting more sophisticated. CyberGhost’s study shows that this is now a more profitable crime in the US than the illegal drug trade and is estimated to reach a cost of $10.5 trillion by 2025. This has increased exponentially since the covid pandemic, and in a global recession, when budgets are tight, security can be the first the suffer. 

The term ‘hacker’ conjures images of people breaking into your accounts and stealing valuable data. Some people hack your systems for good, finding out where your weaknesses are so that you can protect them. These are known as ethical hackers, who work in different ways. The job can be split into three distinct camps.

Firstly, some will ‘bug bounty hunt’ for you. These people report vulnerabilities to companies for a reward. Others will be hired by an organization to attack a company and see where weaknesses are. The final ones are penetration testers, who will go alone and try to get into a system using simulated attacks. On any occasion, the reports will come back to you, and you can begin to improve defenses. For better online security, Surfshark product provides safe network connection and you may consider using it.

Up Your Password Game

Hackers don’t even need much personal information to crack your password. They can use sophisticated software to crunch it down on their behalf. Thus, the longer and more complex a password is, the less likely it is to be broken. Money Helper advises using numbers, letters, and special characters as well as upper and lowercase. If you have staff, ensure they are adequately briefed on how to do this. 

Stay Alert to Phishing Scams

Another area that is becoming more sophisticated is phishing scams. Gone are the days of poorly written emails asking you to transfer money for cash prizes. Phishing scams are so sophisticated that even tech-savvy individuals can fall prey to them. Phishing scams account for around half of all cyber-attacks in the UK. 

For those unaware of phishing, it is the process of sending communications to extort information from an individual. Usually, this happens through email and text messages. Fraudsters may pretend to be companies or financial institutions. Once they have the necessary details, they can log into accounts and take what they want.

There are a few ways to spot phishing emails. They may be from different email addresses for the institution they claim to be. Many may still have bad spelling or grammar, though not always. You should check the name of the person sending the email on the company website or LinkedIn to see if they are an actual person working for the company. Finally, anything that asks you to provide bank account details or login codes should be a red flag. 

Update and Backup

Updating your system is easy to overlook. If the updates come fast, you may have other things to attend to. Understandably, the downtime may cost you if customers are visiting your website. You must update as quickly as possible. 

The reason for this is that not only do updates improve usability, but they also improve security. If weaknesses are found that hackers can exploit, updates are usually done to seal them. Failing to update leaves doors open for people to walk in. 

Even with the best security in the world, things may still go wrong. This is why you also need to back up your website. If everything goes down, a quick reboot will see it back to where it was. Backing up is also much easier than you may think. It can be done on external storage or even in the cloud, and most major hosting services like GoDaddy will offer it. 

No one is guaranteed to be safe. With these tips, you may do enough to dissuade a would-be hacker and send them on their way, looking for an easier target.