Covid-19 has compelled many business owners and employees to remotely connect to their workplace computers. This creates the need to sufficiently secure remote connections to deter intrusion. Check out the security measures that can help.
Now a days hacking has become a very common occurrence, be it within government organizations, corporations, local small businesses, or individuals. Hackers normally try to seize valuable information with the intention of either financially benefiting from it or causing harm to the information owner’s hardware or software. From a business perspective, this can lead to financial difficulty, loss of customer loyalty, and hindrance to the business’ goodwill.
Although it is very difficult to be fully protected from hackers (possibly due to the shortcomings of software and hardware), there are precautionary measures that businesses should implement to reasonably safeguard confidential information.
Below we discuss key security measures businesses (and employees) should seriously consideration.
Password policies
The availability of high bandwidth and computational power has made it easy for hackers to launch “dictionary attacks" that can guess passwords. Many small businesses overlook the possibility of such an occurrence and in turn the resulting impediments that can be caused to business operations. With hackers gaining access to passwords company’s email accounts, servers and customer data can be compromised.
Solution: Companies should set periodic dates for each personnel including business owners/managers to reset their passwords. As trivial as this task may seem, it can go a long way in securing confidential information.
Backup company data
Recently, there have been numerous news reports of companies becoming victims of ransomware attacks. Ransomware attack is when hackers gain access to company’s data and encrypt it - precluding the company from regaining access to data. As a condition for turning over the data back to the company hackers demand large sum of money. And even if the business pays out the money to the hackers there is no guarantee hackers will turn over the data. This incident is sure to cause panic amongst business owners and employees.
Solution: Businesses should backup data on an ongoing basis. From time to time the company should test back up to ensure data can be retrieved when needed. Furthermore, to disallow hackers access to data in their possession, the company should wipe out its hacked hard drive.
Endpoint security
With the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic more people are working from home by remotely connecting to their workplace computers. Remote connections, however, are more vulnerable to hacking since hackers attempt to access a network from every entry point.
Solution: Endpoint security protects computer networks that are remotely connected from being hacked. Endpoint security can be implemented through firewall, antivirus, and software that are updated and patched.
Data encryption
Encryption is when data is encoded (secured) and can only be accessed by entering the correct encryption key. It is crucial that confidential data is encrypted as it reduces the likelihood of data being tampered by hackers. Encryption will help to keep data safe in case hackers are unable to decrypt it Note: data encryption is required to be compliant with the PIPEDA act.
Solution: Before enabling encryption, back up your data and create an image back up (which is a replica of all the contents on your disk). For advice specific to your business needs contact an IT professional.
Social media
With the popularity of social media, many businesses are using it to promote their goods and services and pursue customer engagement. However inadvertently sharing unnecessary or irrelevant information on social media can lead to security issues for the company. Furthermore, linking personal accounts with company pages can potentially expose company’s confidential information which hackers can use to their advantage - i.e., compromising a company's Wi-Fi network.
Solution: Employees and owners/managers should refrain from linking their personal profile with the company’s page. In addition, the company's Wi-Fi network should be properly secured with a password that is hard to guess.
Conclusion
It is critical that businesses and employees have proper security measures in place to safeguard confidential information. The security measures discussed above are for reference purposes only. It is strongly advised that businesses consult an IT professional to determine security measures appropriate for their specific needs.
Source: Privacy Canada
For professional accounting and tax advice contact Alpha Acccountzy, Accounting & Tax Solutions.
