It’s the season for New Year’s resolutions, and a good one for many small businesses would be to ensure their IT infrastructure, and the critical business data within, is safe and secure.
Security vendor Symantec has some tips to help SMBs get started, producing an infographic with 10 surefire ways small businesses can lose their data. Among the pitfalls to avoid are some things that are common practice for many, just as advertising your absence with an out of office auto-response. Letting people know you’re away is pretty much a necessity for most business people, but Symantec recommends you limit the information you provide in the message so cyber-criminals don’t have too much to work with.
Another thing to avoid is not using the screen lock on your tablet or smartphone. While it’s a pain, your device is often an easy way into the corporate backend if it falls into the wrong hands, and it’s not that hard to lose a smartphone these days. As well, Symantec advises SMBs to avoid sending confidential information over the free airport WiFi (or the coffee shop, for that matter) and use strong passwords for all your sites – your cat’s name doesn’t count.
How can businesses stay safe? Symantec notes 87 per cent of SMBs lack a written Internet security policy, so that may be a place to start. Among their recommended best practices: know what you need to protect, encrypt confidential information and, of course, use a reliable security solution and keep it up to date.
Courtesy Symantec.