According to the United States Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, 47% of adults in America have had their most vital personal information taken and exposed by a cyber criminal. This figure is shocking, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Not if you know how to prevent cyber attacks.
These days, strong cyber security is just as important for your business’s safety as physical security. Knowing how to prevent cyber attacks can keep you and your business from becoming just another one of these terribly concerning statistics. From your data to your passwords to your network and everything in between, the tips below will help you know how to prevent cyber attacks.
Keep All Your Software and Systems Updated
One of the most successful ways for hackers and cyber criminals to steal a business’s information is by exploiting weaknesses that software and system updates could quickly patch. If you don’t keep your software and systems up to date, you put yourself at risk of being taken advantage of through these weak points that the updates would fix. Once criminals are in, you’ll have a hard time getting them out. For this reason, you should always make sure to update your business’s software and systems whenever developers release new updates.
Back up All Your Data
According to a recent statement from the White House, one of the most important preventative measures a business can take against cyber attacks is backing up all your data and making sure you have offline backups stored beyond the reach of cyber criminals. This action is doubly beneficial: Not only are data backups a key component of cyber attack prevention, they’re also useful in the event of other kinds of disasters that can harm your business (such as weather and fire). Your customers trust you with their personal data. You owe it to them to maintain that trust by safely and regularly backing up that data.
Limit Access to Your Technology
While it might sound like an exaggeration, your business’s technology really is the life force of your entire operation. As such, you need to limit who has access to that technology to keep your business in good health and safe from the harm of cyber attacks. To do this, it’s worth keeping your computers and your data away from areas the public can access. Physical security can help here. Cyber attacks are often done virtually, but they can be carried out in real life, as well. For this reason, you have to limit who can access your business’s technology to prevent potential data theft.
Protect Your Wifi
It might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about how to prevent cyber attacks, but it turns out that your wifi can be one of the weakest parts of your entire operation. Because so many devices — from phones to our fridges and all sorts of technology in between — rely on wifi to work properly, cyber criminals learn to target these less secure connections and gain access to your entire network. Securing your wifi network and limiting who can access it are great ways to make sure that no one is able to attack your business through your wifi network.
Give Every Employee Their Own Credentials
According to the United States Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, multi-factor authentication at sign-in can make you and your business 99% less likely to be hacked. Instead of giving all your employees a single login to access your business’s network, you need to make sure every employee has their own credentials, each with multi-factor authentication required to log in. This can be in the form of a unique code emailed or texted to them, a fingerprint or face ID, or some other form of additional authentication. The more people that share a login, the more likely it is to be exploited. For this reason, every employee needs their own credential. After all, it’s hard to argue with a number like 99%.
Regularly Update Your Passwords
Sometimes, it’s just not enough to follow all these steps if you’re not also regularly updating your passwords. If a cyber criminal learns one of your business’s passwords, they could quickly gain access to your entire network. A good rule of thumb is to change your business’s passwords once every three months. It wouldn’t hurt to shorten this window, though. After all, your customers’ most essential data depends on it. Find a schedule that works for you — monthly, quarterly, even weekly — and stick with it with determination.
Utilize Payment Security
Last but not least, knowing how to prevent cyber attacks should involve how your business makes and receives payments. In a shocking bit of information, 33% of all title company transactions in 2020 included targeted wire fraud scams. what’s more, 71% of these stolen funds couldn’t be recovered. This is why it’s so essential for your business to utilize payment security. This can be done with paymints.io: a white-label digital platform that gives title companies and real estate brokerages the ability to accept digital money transfers safely and securely.
Equipped with bank-level security and an SSO login, paymints.io is an excellent way to ensure you and your business’s transactions avoid the serious risks posed by traditional wired transactions.
The Bottom Line: Keep Yourself and Your Business Safe
Knowing how to prevent cyber attacks means the difference between a safe, secure business and a vulnerable one. With so many cyber criminals eager to take advantage of those vulnerabilities, you simply can’t afford to ignore the above tips. From regular updates to routine data backups to stronger wifi and password protection, keeping yourself and your business safe begins and ends with knowing how to prevent cyber attacks.
Paymints.io is well aware of this and committed to protecting your financial information from cyber criminals. If you’re interested in learning more about paymints.io’s proprietary platform, schedule a demo with one of our account representatives today.
