5 Biggest Threats for Business Data and How to Avoid Them

No business, whether small or big, is safe from security vulnerabilities. If you think your small company is reliable, look at the like of Home Depot and Target that have previously been victims of cyber breaches despite having strong security for their data in place. Although many of us may think that big companies are the primary targets for hackers, there is a need to know that even the smallest businesses face the same issues.

Although cybercriminals may need financial documents, there is also a likelihood that they are only hacking to cause mayhem in the business by disorienting the data. To help small businesses in handling such cases, this article has given some of the major threats that most companies face and how to avoid them.

1. Disgruntled employees

In many instances, we vehemently pray that we never come across rogue employees who would turn out to be a threat to a business. Employing these kinds of employees is very common since they tend to convince us that they have the company’s best interests at heart. However, it only turns out that some of the members of the IT team who have immense knowledge of networks and data centres can cause a lot of damage.

The solution to such a problem is to terminate all the privileged accounts by identifying some of the accounts that are not in use or were previously used by employees who left the company. The other way is by implementing infrastructure to track and record all activities that take place. In case of any misconducts, your alert system should be very responsive.

2. Careless employees

Besides being unlucky to have rogue employees, you can also fall in the trap of hackers by having employees who carelessly handle their data. An employee who forgets to log out or one who logs in from any device is as dangerous as a cyber-criminal. If you fail to train your employees, they might end up having weak passwords visit unauthorized pages, or even click on any suspicious links that are sent through random emails. Hackers use such opportunities to get access to the primary data by following the trail left behind by these employees.

The best solution is to train employees on various things to do with cybersecurity. Teach them to create strong passwords besides encrypting your account.

3. Relying on third party services

With the advancement in technology, hackers have found it even easier to hack some of these accounts. If you employ the basics, you might get caught up and hacked in the process. For this reason, companies are relying on vendors to maintain their system. The disadvantage of these companies is that they use similar passwords for all their clients and therefore becomes very unfortunate when one of the clients is hacked. The solution is to ensure that the third party uses unique credentials for each user and also using multiple authenticities before accessing an account.

4. Use of mobile devices

Hacking is widespread on people who operate their accounts through their mobile phones. If one accesses their business’s account using a mobile phone, it becomes very easy for hackers to have all the necessary information they need. The solution is to train employees on the best cybersecurity practices and how to protect their online business.

5. Cloud applications

Our data faces threats at the cloud level. The best defense at this stage is to have strong encryption and ensure that you retain all the keys to avoid any possibilities of a third party coming into contact with them. You should ensure that all your sensitive data is stored by data level encryption defense. One of the software that help in storage and backup of such data is ottomatik.io.

People should realize that a breach of data can happen at any moment, and a business has to be prepared at all times. Failure to have taken prior security measures will lead to a loss or disorientation of susceptible data that can cost you the company.