IT Security: What Your Business Needs to Know

It’s only the largest scale cyber security breaches that hit the news stands. The fears over the Heartbleed bug and companies such as Adobe and Sony reporting hacks in the last few years mean we need to be more vigilant than ever. Chances are, unless your business specialises in internet and IT security, you aren’t an expert in this field and therefore, we’ve put together some tips to keep in mind and help you along the way to protecting your business against the range of cyber threats out there.

There’s No Such Thing as Too Small

With companies as large as eBay being hacked in 2014, it’s very easy to believe only the big guys get hit. This simply isn’t true. A key trend in 2014 has been smaller scale attacks, data theft and hacking attempts on smaller companies who may struggle considerably when it comes to bouncing back, in a way that bigger companies don’t. Many experts argue that smaller companies are more vulnerable than larger ones but in fact, it is the other way around, as the sheer size of data pools held by the larger companies constitutes more risk.  A smaller company can protect themselves much more easily by analysing and auditing their business processes regularly and understanding, perhaps with the help of professional IT support, where their business processes may be at risk. Knowing where the risks lie allows for more vigilance.

Recognise your Responsibility

The connected nature of the modern world means that, though you may feel you’re only responsible for your own networks, you are in fact a cog in a much larger system. Business processes span more than just your company’s systems, especially when you take into account consumer’s entering their details into your systems on their own private computers, tablets and smartphones. The risk management sector is working to catch up with the speed of the increasingly globally interconnected world, managing differences in security systems. Ensuring your business network security is water tight is the best way you can ensure you’re doing your bit.

Plan for the Worst

Knowing how much to invest in your IT and cybersecurity is difficult but most experts now agree we should all plan for the worst. Having a system in place for the worst possible scenario means you can handle smaller threats with ease. Having patchy security in place, such as PCI compliance for transaction processing but less than effective firewalls, leaves you open to threats. You need to have processes in place to cover every eventuality. Being compliant doesn’t mean you’re necessarily protected and you need the kind of system that will be effective at peak times as well as during quieter periods.

Communication is Key

You cannot and should not ever try and cover up a security breach. Exercising full compliancy is essential for the integrity of your business and for maintaining the trust of your customers. When Feedly, the news aggregation app, faced a cyber-attack in June, they were candid about it on their blog, keeping customers updated and maintaining their peace of mind. The more information you can give to your customers the better, especially with regards to the return of their service. Your company will already have crisis management processes in place and a cyber-attack or IT security breach is nothing more than an example of a crisis from a different source.

Embrace Risk

Risk isn’t always a negative thing, it means you have to evaluate and audit your business processes regularly, ensuring they’re up to date. Risk demands that you ensure your business is up to date. Many businesses have adopted cloud services, due to their benefits when it comes to security from denial of service attacks for example, bringing them in line with other businesses in 2014.

Keeping abreast of security threats in 2014 is different to managing them in 2013 and by 2015 things will change again. The nature of the web and the speed at which cyber criminals and hackers are developing their processes demands that business owners are quick to react and ready for anything.

For more informattion on how we can help keep your business secure, please contact me on 01942 311150.

Thanks 

Mike Ahlgren