Data Protection Strategies For Your Business

IT security is a growing concern for today’s businesses. Thousands of security breaches take place each year in America alone. Small and medium-sized businesses seem to be prime targets for hackers, but no company is invulnerable to attacks. When they happen, they can have dire consequences. Losing valuable data can have a serious impact in its own right, but the costs tend to run far deeper than that. Security breaches can damage businesses’ reputations, cause customers to lose trust in them, and ultimately lead to a loss of business. 

In light of all that, it’s important to have protective measures in place. With so much being at stake for today’s businesses, standard measures like basic virus and ransomware protection just aren’t enough. Consider using the following strategies to help protect your company’s sensitive information as well as that of your customers and anyone else who might be affected by a cyberattack. 

Managed IT Security Services

Many businesses simply don’t have the space or budget for an in-house cyber security team. Of course, they can’t afford not to have one, either. If that’s one of the challenges you’re facing, managed IT security services may be the answer.

MSSPs offer a range of advanced security solutions to meet your company’s unique needs. They provide all the cyber security support you need to protect your business against the latest threats and keep you in compliance with your industry’s security and privacy regulations. Additionally, they handle everything from strategy development to patches and updates on your behalf so you don’t have to worry about anything slipping through the cracks. 

Access Control Measures

For quite a few businesses, internal data breaches are as much of a problem as external attacks. With that being the case, having stringent access control measures in place is essential. Multi-factor authentication is a common tool for thwarting breaches, and it can include passwords, tokens, and biometrics among other solutions. It provides multiple layers of protection against unauthorized access to sensitive information. 

Other options in this category are role-based access control, privileged access management, principle of least privilege, and time-based access. Continuous authentication and regular access reviews are a couple of additional tools for monitoring and managing access to important data and reducing the likelihood of unauthorized access. Numerous access control measures are available to help companies keep their information from falling into the wrong hands. 

Employee Cyber Security Training

Another important piece of the puzzle is routine employee cyber security training. Human error is one of the leading causes of security breaches. In fact, some reports show that it’s responsible for at least half of these incidents. Other studies indicate it could be the cause of up to 90 percent of them. 

In many cases, employees don’t intentionally leave their employers vulnerable to security breaches. They’re simply unaware that they’re doing it. They may log in for work and walk away from their computers without logging out, not realizing that all it takes is a few seconds for information to fall into the wrong hands. People often open seemingly harmless emails only to find they’re malicious. Some leave paperwork that other people shouldn’t see on printers, fax machines, or their workstations. Training employees to be more mindful of mistakes like those and watch for potential security issues is crucial, and continually reinforcing that training is equally essential.

Protecting Your Company Against Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks are on the rise, and they’re only going to grow more common in the future. That means protecting your company against them is becoming increasingly important. The measures mentioned here are only a few of the ways you can effectively prevent security breaches. Each company’s needs are different, so creating a plan that’s tailored to your business’s unique cyber security needs is the key to success.

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