5 things you can do to help protect your business from a cyber attack

With another high-profile hack hitting the headlines, here’s 5 basic things to focus on to help protect your business from a cyber attack.
8 January 2020 | Digital Business, WordPress Website Security

The champagne bottles had barely been cleared away before a new large scale hack / data breach hit the headlines.

On January 2nd, Travelex was attacked with ransom ware. Their websites have been down for over a week now and cyber security experts have been drafted in to help them recover, if possible. According to the latest news reports, the attackers are demanding a $3m ransom for their data.

If this type of attack can happen to as large a company as Travelex, with all their investment in security and an army of people, it can happen to your business too.

Travelex will survive this, of course. But if a similar attack crippled your business in the same way, could you?

Most attacks, especially against websites, are more of a nuisance – designed to steal your computing and bandwidth resources or to recruit your site to a botnet army.

It’s often said you cannot stop a determined attacker, but by focusing on a few basics you can ensure your business is not the softest target out there.

Passwords: Don’t use the same password across sites. If one is compromised, then they all are…..and the top prize is a password used for banking or shopping sites.

Anti virus: Make sure you have protection in place (and keep it updated)

Backups: Make sure you take regular backups and perform the occasional check to make sure you can recover from backup

Unknown links and emails: Look at the link before you click it…..look at the actual email address behind that paypal name being displayed. If they say anything other than paypal.com then its bad news, just delete it. Phishing remains a real risk and is on the increase.

Website security: A poorly configured and out of date website can be a soft and very visible target. Make sure you are running all the latest software to include the latest security updates and you have backups and know how to recover your site in the event of an incident.

If you just worry about these 4 things you will be better off than many businesses.

If you need help or advice with any of this feel free to get in touch – we offer advice and help businesses of all sizes with services focused on security and business continuity, from website management right through to full business continuity planning and running disaster scenario planning exercises for businesses.