Protecting your company data online may seem like a challenge, but with the help of our cyber security tips, you can keep everything from customer information to financial details safe and secure.

Keep passwords long and strong

Studies suggest that 14% of people use a person’s name as their password, 8% use a place name and 25% use a word that can be found in the dictionary such as ‘monkey’ or ‘password’. Although these passwords are memorable and can be typed in with minimal effort, their simplicity does little to protect the accounts in question from hackers.

One of the easiest things you can do to improve cyber security within your business is to keep passwords long and strong. Use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters and avoid easy-to-guess words and phrases.

Take a look at our guide to creating strong yet memorable passwords for more guidance.

 

Use a different password for each account

Avoid using the same password across multiple accounts, even if it’s long and complicated. Using the same password for more than one tool or device can be a recipe for disaster. If someone was to get hold of your Facebook password, for example, they’d be able to log into everything else too. Don’t be afraid of writing your passwords somewhere safe or using a trusted and verified online password manager.  

 

Implement a security policy

It’s always wise to have a security policy in place outlining any steps or measures that need to be taken in order to protect your company’s data. This security policy should state your employees’ responsibilities and explain the steps they need to take in order to keep the business safe online.

 

Educate employees

Chances are, most of your employees spend very little time thinking about cyber security. Earlier this year The Pew Research Center conducted a survey to determine how knowledgeable people are when it comes to online security.

The survey consisted of 13 questions designed to test how familiar the general public were with multi-factor authentication, virtual private networks, private browsing, encryption and a multitude of other security matters.

25% of respondents failed to identify the most secure password from a list of options, 45% were unable to identify a phishing attack from a set of descriptions, and just 10% were able to identify an example of multi-factor authentication.

Use these findings to educate your employees on key areas of data security. They certainly don’t have to become experts, but a little knowledge on email encryption, ransomware, and phishing scams can go a long way.

 

Store company data in the cloud

When you save files to the cloud, you can access them on any computer or device providing it has an internet connection and the device is compatible with the cloud services platform.

Despite the cloud’s growth in popularity over the last few years, many people are reluctant to embrace it because they struggle with the idea of storing their data in a mysterious ‘cloud’ that they can’t see. However, not only are there multiple layers of security in place to protect your data, cloud storage also has other benefits.

For example, let’s imagine an employee was to leave a company device on a train by mistake. If your data was in the cloud, you could potentially restrict that device’s access to your private business information. You could also change passwords and remotely delete any accounts that device already has access to. If, however, all your data was stored on that device itself, not only might you struggle to access your files yourself, it can be a challenge to prevent them falling into the wrong hands. Take a look at our 5 tips to keeping your data secure in the cloud to learn more,

If you’d like help improving cyber security across your company, please get in touch with the team at Prism. We’ll do everything in our power to manage and protect your IT security, meaning you can focus on what you do best – running your business and keeping customers happy.