As businesses engage more and more in the digital world, the scope for liabilities and risks rises everywhere. For many entrepreneurs, the thought of needing to worry about cybersecurity might not even have entered their minds.
Unfortunately, the threats that businesses and companies face from hackers, viruses, and malware are only growing. A Deloitte poll showed that close to 34.5% of polled executives said that their organizations had experienced cyber-attacks.
This is not an insignificant amount. New businesses and companies tend to overlook cybersecurity aspects and hence make prime targets for hackers and scammers. Thus, the need for protecting your website and online portals from attacks cannot be overstated.
Where do Security Threats Come from?
In order to better protect your company or business from security threats, it is important that you first understand the nature of the most common threats.
One of the most common ways that businesses find themselves vulnerable to attacks is through malware. Malware usually appears in the form of a piece of software that is created with the purpose of infiltrating a computer system or network in order to cause harm or steal sensitive information.
Malware is an umbrella term for all such types of software, which can range from viruses to worms, trojans, and ransomware.
Each of these types has a different methodology and approach in terms of how they harm your computer, and anti-malware defenses have to keep updating their detection methods in order to protect and defend you as malware also constantly evolves and becomes more advanced.
These attacks originate from cyber criminals who are always on the lookout for a potentially juicy target. Once they have you in their sights, they will aim to steal information in order to extort money or simply sell the information on the black market if it has that sort of value.
Intellectual property theft is a common occurrence and involves the targeting of trade secrets, proprietary software, and patents.
However, one of the most troublesome types of cyber threats comes in the form of ransomware, which encrypts the data on your computer (thereby preventing you from accessing it) and will not provide you with a key until you transfer a sum of money.
Typically, this would be anywhere between $500 to $1,000, but when the target is a business or a company, the ransom will likely be far higher.
Some cybersecurity threats also originate due to rival companies or parties that wish to damage the reputation of your business or company.
For instance, if you offer cloud-based services to people and have advertised that data stored with you is safe, a simple data breach by a hacker is enough to cause you to lose your reputation with your user base.
Many times, this is all that is needed to ruin a company. It doesn’t matter what you say or do now, as the damage is already done. For this reason, it makes sense to ensure that security threats are dealt with before any such unfortunate incidents can even happen.
Preventative Measures: The Best Way to Counter Cyber Threats
As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure, and it holds true in this context as well. How do you prevent cyber attacks from happening, though?
No matter how much you choose to read up on keeping your business safe, you can’t really compete with people who do this for a living.
Many businesses lack the budget to run an in-house IT team, or more likely, their current team is relatively inexperienced. For this reason and others, managed IT services are often contracted and make for a great option.
It is a sort of outsourcing where you would hire a team with experience in providing IT and cyber security services at a fraction of the cost you would pay for having an in-house team of the same level.
One of the perks of going this route is that the vast majority of them offer 24/7 monitoring and support and will detect and address any threats or issues in real-time.
They also take care of the backend and ensure that firewalls, access controls, and encryption technologies are all properly configured and maintained. They can also help educate your employees and ensure that they do not engage in risky online behavior that can put your business at risk.
Simple Technology Solutions is one such company that offers Managed IT services in addition to Cloud Services and Network and Security. Run by Rob Clower and Derek Wells, it aims to provide a personalized service experience for each client that they work with.
Of course, hiring such a service is but one part of the entire picture. Many times, the issues happen at a simpler level and due to a lack of awareness on the part of a few individuals who end up compromising everything.
For this reason, education on how to detect potential threats, such as being careful with clicking unknown links and downloading attachments from unknown senders, is imperative.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, we live in a time when cyber threats and attacks have become so common that it is almost a necessity for a business or company to have a dedicated team to manage critical areas of technology and provide network security.
Threats come in all forms these days, and a combination of regular education on maintaining proper security protocols for all employees, along with the help of a good IT management team, can go a long way in providing your business with the safety and security it needs.