6 Cyber Security Tips for Home Businesses

Starting a home business is an exciting and rewarding venture. The most important part of owning your own business is keeping it safe. Unfortunately, small and home businesses have become the targets for criminals seeking to steal sensitive information. This is largely due to their lack of trained IT personnel on staff.

For this reason, we have complied this list of 6 cyber security tips to protect your home business.

1. Educate Yourself on Types of Attacks

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to have a working knowledge of the type of threats that your business faces. There are three common types of attacks including phishing, APTs, and inside jobs.

Phishing attacks are the most common type of cyber attack, and they are easily preventable. Phishers are the ones who send out fraudulent emails that can release malware or even steal secure information with a simple click.

APTs, or Advanced Persistent Threats, occur when hackers use several small attacks over time. These are hard to detect, but once they accumulate, they can lead to a huge threat.

Inside jobs occur when current or past employees use their knowledge of your business to penetrate your system.

2. Protect Against Viruses and Malware

The next most important tip about protecting your home business is installing antivirus and antispyware software on every computer that you use for business. There are many online vendors to choose from for this kind of software.

You also need to ensure that you regularly update the software. In fact, we recommend changing your settings so that it updates automatically. Updates allow for the software to handle new security threats and function properly.

3. Use Social Media Responsibly

Social media is a great way to advertise your business, generate new leads, and build brand awareness. It is important, however, to use social media in a way that does broadcast any trade secrets about your business. While you want to provide valuable content to your audience, there are many aspects of your business that the public and your competitors don’t need to know. Using social media responsibly will help protect your business from unnecessary risks.

4. Assess Potential Risks

Speaking of risks, another important cyber security tip to keep in mind is managing and assessing potential risks. You must ask yourself “What do I have to protect?” and “What do I not want to lose?”

This is especially true if your home business has a relationship with a larger firm. Hackers often target small, lesser-protected businesses to gain access to the wealth of information that bigger companies have. An attack on your business could ultimately result in losing trust with the bigger companies you seek to work with.

5. Always Backup Your Information

If your home business should go under attack, you need to be sure that you won’t lose important documents, data, and information forever. You should manually, but preferably automatically, back up all the information on any computer used for your business on a weekly basis.

6. Secure Your WiFi Network

Chances are you have a WiFi network that you use for your home business. It is important to secure this network and ensure that it is hidden. You can configure your wireless router so that the network name (SSID) is not being broadcast. It is also critical that you require a password to access your wireless network. This password should be changed from the one assigned to your router, to something only you would know.

Your home business is your dream. Protect it from malicious threats by following these important cyber security tips. To learn more about protecting your home business, contact us today!