Security First Then Business

3 Sep

2020 was, without doubt, the year that businesses across the globe went ‘remote’. Call it the fall out of the Covid-19 crises or the fact that more business organisations are embracing the 4IR (fourth industrial revolution) – one thing is for sure; more people are working from home. There are perks to this approach such as money saved on rental, more hours of productivity, no more daily commuting, but there’s one very big downside; the security risk.

With increased remote working, new technology is being introduced to the business and this means that new threats are a high possibility. When an employee is working from home and using their own network and device to access business systems and data, chances are that your business could end up hacked or sensitive data leaked, lost, or damaged/destroyed.

Adopting the Right Security Mind Set

Along with a new way of working this year, people seem to have adopted an “it won’t happen to me” mindset, which can be counterintuitive. A business with such a mindset is a business that’s opening itself up to possible devastation. Cybersecurity isn’t just something for “other people” to pay attention to. Every business from the smallest to the largest needs to take just as much care and have just as much vigilance when it comes to cyber-security.

In South Africa, it appears that business owners believe that cyber-attacks are a problem for the international business landscape, when in fact, the statistics tell us a different story. In a countrywide survey carried out by Sophos at the beginning of 2020, it was uncovered that 24% of business respondents were in fact hit with a ransomware attack that impacted their business significantly. Even more surprising is that 27% of those businesses affected admitted that they did, in fact, pay the requested ransom.

Business owners can stand to gain from adopting a “security first then business” attitude when it comes to using new technology and allowing employees to work from home. One of the first steps you should take is to implement precise security measures that safeguard against the new business operations bringing the organisation to its knees.

What to Do – Security First Then Business

Industry professionals will tell you that there are several measures business owners can take to safeguard their businesses. These include changing passwords regularly, limiting access of employees to business systems, disallowing the use of personal devices to access company networks or store sensitive business data and so on.

There’s more that you can do to protect your data and business interests though. For starters, transitioning to a cloud-based system could streamline business processes as well as offer an added level of security. Data stored in the cloud should be encrypted and regular automated backups should ensure that in the event of being hacked, there’s no need to pay a ransom as there’s a safe and secure copy stored in the cloud.

When to Take Action

There’s no point in waiting to be the victim of a phishing or ransomware attack before you start taking precautions or implement security systems. Instead, take the notion of prevention being better than cure and ensure that you get your business cyber-security systems up to standard today.

For assistance with encrypted cloud backups and further advice on securing your business, get in touch with us at Soteria Cloud today.

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