All companies are under attack and subject to a cyber attack at all times. 88% of organizations worldwide experienced spear phishing attempts in 2019 and these numbers are only rising. As the tech industry grows and evolves so does the need for cybersecurity strategies improve so it cannot be penetrated. Today, we are discussing the need to develop data security within your organization so that your information is always protected. 

2020 wasn’t just a bad year for public health and safety. It was on record through 3 quarters the worst year ever as far as data breaches go. In the first half alone 36 billion records were exposed due to cyber attacks. This isn’t only alarming but should raise questions as to how business owners are being targeted for information breaches that are targeting your information. These attacks are typically motivated for financial gain as well as for information that could be of value.

According to Verizon 45% of breaches used hacking, while 22% and 17% involved malware and phishing respectively. There are multiple ways that your company and network can be targeted. You and your employees must be aware of how an attack happens and what you can do to prevent one. For more on one way click here. 

On average a serious cybersecurity breach costs a company $200,000. This can be deadly to a small business. Many cannot take a hit this big and it will put them out of business for good. If it doesn’t do that trust can be lost in your company. You could be forced to reduce your operation to a small fraction of how large it was before. None of these are what you want for your small business.

This is frightening to imagine so not letting it happen to your business is essential to its survival. Taking preventative measures before something happens is always a good way to prevent this from happening to your small business. Click here for more on this. Losing your company may not happen every time, but having a security breach can have long lasting effects on your business.

Long lasting effects on your company is what can kill it if the initial breach does not. One major way this can happen is losing the trust of your clients/customers. Losing this is just as bad as closing your business. If clients don’t trust your company, then what can you do? Your reputation is always at stake and losing a good one is something that not all small businesses can come back from.

Losing trust is something no business can afford. Leaving a bad reputation behind can lead to a slower downfall to your business, instead of being crushed by the initial cyber attack. This is something that can wear on your business for years and it can take years to come back from, if your business is capable. 

Data Security is important to your business. Having your employees trained on how to prevent information breaches is one major way to help prevent one from happening. Another way is to trust in a third party I.T. company so that someone is constantly monitoring your security situation and can immediately take action if something goes wrong. A serious breach can be detrimental to a small business through financial loss, information leaks, and lost trust from your clients/customers. Nobody wants this to happen to them so taking necessary steps to secure your network is always the first step to making sure your business is safe. 

2020 was a challenging year in every aspect of our lives. Nothing was easy and everyone had to make adjustments in order to stay productive. Making things work wasn’t good enough for most of us though, we wanted to thrive and continue to get better. That included the workspace, and we think the world did a great job of adjusting on the fly. We found out a lot more about what we can do rather than what we can’t. Today, we will be discussing what we learned in 2020.

Remote Work Works 

On average if optimal conditions are given remote workers are 15-40% more productive. This is huge. People are more productive from home and it saves your company money. There is a potential for large amounts of saving and resource costs associated with having a physical office location. There was a problem with security, however, when people switched to remote work. Security became an issue due to unsecure networks and people using personal devices at home. This can be addressed as the cybersecurity world is ever growing. There will be much more news on this as 5g rolls out globally and becomes more available to people. 

Safety First 

Cybersecurity wasn’t just an issue with remote workers. We learned that cybersecurity is more important than we thought. Cybercriminals evolved with remote workers and the pandemic to target people at home and are now targeting people at work. For more on how to stay safe while working from home or just how to stay safe in general click here.

With cybersecurity education and implementation are the best ways to prevent anything catastrophic from happening with your information. You should educate yourself and your team on the necessary precautions to take to prevent a breach from happening. Implementing a plan on what to do when something happens will also benefit your company. Trusting a third part I.T. and cybersecurity company is always recommended if you don’t know much about the world of cybersecurity. 

Be Aware of what you do 

On the side of security being aware of what we do while working from home or at a company location is always very important. This can minimize simple mistakes that can lead to emergencies across the company. You should always be on the lookout for suspicious emails and texts, fake emails pretending to be a coworker or boss, or website’s that aren’t secure. If you are on alert the chances of one of these threats compromising your company are almost zero. 

2020 taught us a lot and we need to take the lessons seriously and improve based upon them. If we do the transition into 2021 and beyond will be smoother than the on-the-fly adjustments that we had to make. Remote working is something that will most likely continue for a long time now that we see that it works, but we need to make sure that the transfer to this is safe and secure for years to come.