Your business couldn’t function without its technology, right?
And from time to time, things go wrong.
If these are the only times you speak to your IT support provider, it’s very likely you’re wasting a lot of time and money. Plus creating yourself a ton of stress.
What happens when your business suffers an IT issue?
Whether it’s suspected malware, a data breach, or a computer that refuses to connect to anything, chances are it’s going to cause you and your team downtime.
And if you only have a break/fix relationship with your provider (that’s where you only call them when there’s a problem), it’s going to mean unexpected costs, lots of waiting, and stress. Plenty of stress.
What would happen if your business data was stolen?
Would it:
a) Throw the company into chaos and put everything on the line? Or…
b) Be an inconvenience that, fortunately, you’d already anticipated?
The data in your business is invaluable. Without it you wouldn’t have much of a business left, would you?
So that data must be kept safe… and one of the best ways to do that is to encrypt it.
That way, even if a cyber criminal gets their hands on it, your data is worthless to them.
Our latest guide explains everything you need to know about encryption, and why it’s something you should implement straight away.
Do you trust your employees with sensitive business data? You might be shocked to learn how many business owners don’t. But why… ? We have the answers.
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what happens when it’s a young pup that needs training? New research on people under 40 has revealed a scary attitude towards cyber security. We tell you more here.
The most likely targets for all sorts of cyber attacks are small and medium sized businesses. They don’t have the budgets for dedicated staff or numerous layers of protection.
But the weakest link in any security chain is your staff.
Good cyber security awareness training is essential for everyone in your business.
You will need a strategy to start with.
How many times a day do you respond to an email without really thinking about its contents?
Maybe it’s a request for some information. Perhaps it’s asking you to pay an invoice. All mundane stuff. But no sooner than you’ve hit send, you’ve fallen victim to a Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack.
A BEC attack occurs when a cyber criminal gains access to your business email account and uses it to trick your employees, customers, or partners into sending them money or sensitive information. They do this by impersonating someone senior, and abusing their position of trust.
It might sound like something that only happens to big corporations, but that’s not the case.
According to the FBI, small and medium-sized businesses are just as vulnerable to BEC attacks as larger ones. In fact, these attacks have cost businesses more than £20 billion over the past few years.
And Microsoft brings more bad news, with its recent findings showing that they’re getting both more destructive and harder to detect.
One day it could save your business
Backing up your data is one of the strongest precautions you can take. Set it up properly and make it part of your routine to check that it’s working. Because one day your backup could save your business.
We all hope disasters will never happen.
But of course they can, and do. So it’s best to be prepared. That’s why a reliable backup system is one of the most important protections you can put in place.
Where do you start? Watch our latest video for some expert advice.