With digital threats increasing in frequency and severity, cyber security is quickly becoming a top priority for businesses. Remember when places like Target and Home Depot faced massive security breaches? Thousands of customers had their personal financial data stolen by a hacker. These companies were forced to pay millions to not only enhance security measures but towards banks affected by the breach. Now you may be thinking, “But Target and Home Depot are massive companies, they have locations all over the country. This can’t happen to me.”
Yes, Target and Home Depot are large companies. Yes, they did experience a breach on a much larger scale. But this DOES NOT mean it CANNOT happen to you. Datasmith sees this all too often – companies think they are immune to threats because they are “too small,” or because they “do not have any information a hacker could want.” These are two very common misconceptions. In a hacker’s eyes, no business is to small or too “unimportant.” With the increasing popularity of ransomware viruses, hackers will actually target SMALLER businesses because they know these companies cannot afford to lose their data. The hackers know they won’t have the funds or data protection in place to combat the attack.
All too often we see businesses have to close because of a threat. For your average business, it costs anywhere from $525 to $1,025 per employee to clean up from a virus. With hackers becoming more savvy, and charging a per file fee to get your data back, this number can quickly increase. So, what can you do to protect yourself? The answer is easy: develop a cyber security plan.
What is cyber security? By definition cyber security is the body of technologies, processes and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access. Simply put cyber security is how you protect yourself and your business from digital threats.
Datasmith creates cybersecurity plans for all of our clients. We are constantly analyzing the strongest defense tools to protect your business from threats. Some of the best, and easiest, tools to implement include:
- Disaster Recovery and Back-Up – If an attack strikes these tools can get your business back up and running in minutes. They operate automatically and have saved many businesses from failure.
- Hosted Exchange – This is the strongest email security measure you can take. It allows a third party to maintain your email on their server. Datasmith strongly encourages ALL businesses to utilize this tool.
- Firewall and Anti-Virus – If you’ve been ignoring your anti-virus pop-ups and aren’t quite sure what exactly a firewall is, contact Datasmith. These two tools are essential to combatting cyber attacks.
If you have never checked your digital security measures, now is the time. Implementing a cyber security plan can not only save your business money, it can save you time. Contact Datasmith to begin your cybersecurity plan today.
