Tips on How to Protect Your Business From a Cyber Attack

During the 2020–21 financial year, over 67,500 cybercrime reports were made, an increase of nearly 13 per cent from the previous financial year. One cybercrime report is made approximately every eight minutes in Australia.

 

Questions to ask yourself:

What procedures does your business currently have in place if you were to be at the receiving end of a cyber attack?

What would be the impact on your business if you were unable to use your computers for a period of time?

Do you have funds readily available to engage an IT company to handle the recovery of your data, including the forensic and crisis response costs?

 

Here are 8 essential actions that businesses should take to improve their cyber security procedures

 

Download Malware/Virus Protection on all devices.

All anti-virus software is not created equal – often it’s a case of you get what you pay for. Consider upgrading from traditional AV software to EDR (Endpoint Detection & Response), which can protect your devices from hacking as well as viruses and malware. This level of software has only recently been affordable at the SME level. And remember – MacOS devices are NOT immune to viruses… They must have protection as well!

 

Multi-Function Authentication

Activate Multi-Function Authentication (MFA) on all accounts (particularly email/cloud file storage) – MFA is a significant step to protect your accounts from hackers. Without MFA your account can be accessed with only your username and password, and there is any number of ways these can be compromised.

 

Check that your software is up to date

Check that all your software patches are up to date – suppliers are constantly fixing software vulnerabilities that have been discovered by releasing “patches” or “updates”. Whenever your device is running out-of-date software, it is at risk of attack.

 

Take Backups of your system

Make sure that you have regular backups of critical files – Backup, backup, BACKUP! Using a cloud storage system for your files does not mean that your files are safe. Always use a secondary backup method.

 

Password Management System

Use a Password Management system – These make life much easier with the never-ending list of passwords we have these days! They allow you to quickly generate secure passwords without using the same one again and again (a big no-no!), and they also store them securely while allowing easy access from all your devices.

 

Education

Staff training and education on cyber procedures –

Say you’ve followed all of the above, only to have an employee click a phishing email and open your network up to an attack. Having employees that can spot emails that aren’t genuine can prevent a phishing attack. Businesses should also implement procedures to call clients to confirm bank account details before raising payments. This can prevent money from ending up in the wrong hands.

 

Cyber Insurance

Purchase a Cyber Insurance policy –
A Cyber Insurance policy can cover the costs of an attack on a business, including the costs of a ransomware request, business Interruption costs, IT costs associated – such as restoration of data, and costs incurred for your client’s personal information being breached, such as regulatory penalties.

 

Prevention

Prevention is Key! Engage a professional to do an assessment of your Cyber Security. Cyber Insurance is there for you after an attack, but engaging Frontline Cyber Security to conduct a Cyber Security assessment of your IT installation could prevent an attack altogether.

“Jack Richards from FrontLine CyberSecurity – IT expert specialising in protecting and recovering SME’s from cyber security disasters – “If your business relies on your IT system to function, then you cannot afford NOT to have the best support and protection in place”

 

These are just a few basic (but important) steps to help keep your data safe.

Confused by any of this terminology? If so, then a review of your IT measures is extremely important to prevent an attack on your business.

Hackers attack humans, not computers, and we can make mistakes, no matter how protected our computer is. All it takes is a click of a button for your business to be a victim.

A Cyber Insurance policy can protect you from the financial burden of a cyber-attack.

Safeguard your business by implementing the 8 tips mentioned today.

Let us help you get the best business insurance, contact us today for a quick quote.