A cyber-attack is any kind of malicious activity that aims to collect, disrupt or destroy data within an information system. Attacks are often made on businesses with the intent to steal confidential, important data, or even used to steal money from a company. While this usually happens to small-scale businesses, it can also occur in larger corporations. As a business owner, it is necessary to understand how to prevent this.
Lately, cyber-attacks have been featuring frequently in the news, especially because of the recent cyber-attack on the Royal Mail. Despite the size of the company, the Royal Mail have been struggling with cyber-attacks for over a week and are unable to perform international deliveries in the way that they want to. Being the UK’s largest mail delivery company and delivering to more than twenty-nine million addresses across the country every working day, it is surprising that a company of this stature is struggling with cyber-attacks. This continues to be a problem for the company, despite their very large and technologically advanced I.T. department.
However, cyber-attacks also are made against smaller companies. Cyber-attacks tend to be more common among smaller companies because the attackers target their vulnerabilities such as a lack of I.T. resources that larger corporations would often have. Once these weaknesses are identified, the cybercriminals will perform their attack.
Whether your business is a large corporation or a smaller independent company, the impact that a cyber-attack has on any business remains huge. Even in a case when it is dealt with and the company has not suffered from a loss of data, dealing with the cyber-attack remains to be stressful and time consuming. The day-to-day dealings of a business have to be put on hold for that time.
Despite this, there are many ways to prevent cyber-attacks, specifically for smaller companies. Here are the top four things to consider when preventing cyber-crime on your small business:
- Always using strong passwords.
- Keep all your software and systems up to date.
- Install anti-virus and two-factor authentication.
- Follow cyber security best practice.
Putting these provisions in place will decrease the chances of your business being under the threat of a cyber-attack, which will allow for your data to remain private.
For more information about the prevention of cyber-attacks in your business, contact us today.
