Unfortunately, many of us know how painful it is to be scammed out of money online. Cybercrime is on the rise and is showing little signs of slowing down. This means more and more of us will be targeted, including our businesses. Here’s how to ensure you’re not the next unfortunate victim.
What’s at stake
Many businesses have been caught in unfortunate scams and have lost tens of thousands in revenue. Some of these financial losses have even gone into the millions. Apart from suffering severe financial losses, cybercrime has also resulted in unlawful exposure of confidential and sensitive information that has cost companies their reputation and has even resulted in expensive lawsuits from clients whose data has been stolen and used for fraudulent purposes.
How to ensure you’re not a victim
Of course, you shouldn’t let cybercriminals have the upper hand. And certainly not if you’re equipped with the knowledge you need to spot a scam artist from a mile away. Other things that you can implement within your business to avoid you from being a victim of online fraud include:
Educating everyone involved
If your employees deal with any form of online technology, then they should be trained to be aware of popular scams doing the rounds these days. In other words, have a system security plan in place that covers how to keep your online system as secure as possible. A professional IT person is usually the best option to make sure there are no loopholes in your computer system that can be discovered by prowling cybercriminals.
Updating your software
It’s so easy to press the ‘not now, later’ button when it comes to software updates. But this is one of the easiest ways that fraudsters use to access computer systems if the software update is left outdated for too long. Therefore, take the time to update and spare yourself the hassle of facing the nasty consequences of delaying it until another day.
Get creative with your passwords
This is yet another security measure that can’t be left to chance as poor passwords are another way that cyber-criminals can access your information. According to research, 8-character passwords are fairly easy to get around for cybercriminals. Get creative with the longest password possible, make sure to activate multi-factor authentication, and use biometrics like fingerprints and facial recognition where possible.
What to do if you have been hacked
But suppose you did what you thought was sufficient, and your system was still hacked – what then? First off, you’ll have to have a recovery system in place to mitigate the damage. Your recovery plan will then need to include details such as what information will need to be saved first, how much time and resources will be needed for the recovery process, and it must detail who will be responsible for the recovery process.
Furthermore, if there has been a data breach, you will need to notify everyone involved. For example, you may need to contact clients to let them know that their data has been breached, you may need to inform your bank so that they can put a hold on your bank account, and you will probably have to file a police report to document the incident. And then of course you’ll have to implement preventative measures including more stringent IT security measures to ensure that this does not take place again.
Don’t let cybercrime intimidate you and your business. Rather, equip yourself with the knowledge and tools that you can use to your advantage to prevent cybercriminals from getting the better of you.