As a business, you are responsible for protecting your clients’ personal information. Nowadays, most companies store a lot of important information digitally. While convenient, if you do not understand the risk, you could open your company up to cybercriminals. According to the SBA, cyberattacks cost U.S. businesses about $2.7 billion.
When you understand the threats, you can better prepare for them.
Types of threats
Cyber threats are constantly evolving. Some of the most common threats include:
- Malware
- Ransomware
- Phishing
- Viruses
Malware, viruses and ransomware infect your computer. Malware refers to software designed to damage the network, computer or server. Viruses and ransomware may fall under the malware umbrella. Viruses spread through a computer network and allow criminals to access your system. On the other hand, ransomware restricts access until you pay a ransom.
Phishing is a different type of attack where criminals send out official-looking e-mails. The recipient opens the e-mail and may click a link to input login information. When they input the login information, the criminal has access to their account. There may be an attachment with malicious code that installs malware onto the network in some cases.
Ways to protect your company
To protect your company, you need to ensure you have secure networks. You should encrypt information and use firewalls to secure any data you have. Wi-Fi and staff passwords should be strong and you should ensure that you have backup of all of your data regularly.
One way to ensure that you do not lose necessary data is to ensure all staff and employees undergo training regarding cybercrime.
