Business Management

How to Shield Your Small Business Against Cybercrime in 2018



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Cybercrime is rising at an alarming rate, and businesses of all sizes are vulnerable to attack. It has therefore been predicted that spending money on cybercrime will exceed $1 trillion from 2017 to 2021. If you do not want to become a hacker’s next victim, you should learn how to shield your small business against cybercrime in 2018.

Backup Your Important Data

As soon as a cybercrime takes place, a business owner must act immediately to preserve their data. For example, you should attempt to create a backup of computer logs and critical data, so you will not lose your most important corporate files or have data held for ransom.

Email Filtering System

It’s important an email filtering system is set up across the business, so employees can avoid spam, phishing, and junk emails, which could lead to a cyberattack. It only takes one employee to click on a malicious URL or download the wrong file for a cybercriminal to gain access to your system. As a result, they could unleash a form of malware onto your computer, which could destroy or steal your most important data.

Data Encryption

Encryption can protect your company’s most sensitive data from cybercriminals and employees, such as customers’ credit card details or social security numbers. The unreadable format will require a data encryption key from authorized personnel so that they can gain access to the documents. So, even if a cybercriminal does infiltrate your network, they will be unable to read the data.

Cybersecurity Training

The first line of cybercrime defense should be employee training. Human error could open the door to multiple cyberattacks, which could have negative consequences for your business. For instance, a cybercriminal could gain access to your customer’s credit card or personal details. It is, therefore, wise to educate your employees on basic cybersecurity measures to protect your data. Teach your team on how to recognize potential threats and the appropriate course of action to take following a data breach, so you can eliminate the vulnerability before it becomes a problem.

Utilize Digital Forensics Following an Attack

Every company could experience a cyberattack, regardless of how many security systems and procedures they have in place. If your business becomes the victim of a cyberattack, it’s important to utilize digital forensics to investigate the cause of the hacking attacks and assess the damage. A computer forensic analyst can, therefore, create a digital evidence collection to analyze evidence in a case. Furthermore, if there was a video taken of the crime or if a CCTV camera was able to capture the events, digital forensics can be used on this to help identify the criminal. Video Forensic Experts should be able to authenticate the video and this can be used by police to identify who was responsible.

Filing a Complaint with Law Enforcement

As you will be aware, a business can face significant legal and financial repercussions following a data breach. For this reason, you must have the appropriate documentation available, which you will need to present to your local law enforcement to detail the incident. You should try to provide details on who chose to infiltrate your computer and their reasons why. Law enforcement can then search for their IP address once the complaint has been filed, so they can identify and arrest the culprit, if possible.