The increasing use of technology and constant development of systems and software can place businesses at greater risk of a cyber-incidents. These impacts can occur very quickly and have long-lasting and devastating effects.
If you are a business owner, it is important that you are aware of modern technology use and availability so that you can keep your business safe online.
Different malware – which is dangerous software such as viruses – can cause significant harm to your business through theft of money, impersonation and more. These attacks can occur from anywhere in the world.
You should also be aware of criminal acts such as phishing. This can be in the form of emails, SMS, Instant Messaging and social media. These attacks are aimed at tricking you to believe you have received a message from a trusted source so that you willingly provide personal or financial details.
There are several actions you can take to protect your business online. These include:
- Updating your software as soon as these are available
- Automatically backing up your business data; and
- Set up a multi-factor authentication.
If you are a small business, you may want to think about who you provide computing access to or provide staff training.