Online security for small business

If you have kept up with our month-long series on disaster recovery, you know by now the hazards small businesses face in these days when it comes to data security.  Your small business likely stores data on your business procedures, partners and vendors, customers, and also your finances. All of this makes your small business in Ky.-Tenn. a target for cyber criminals.

Don’t become a target simply because you run a small business. Offenders will often look to mark small businesses under the assumption that they have websites with unsecured, unpatched and unmonitored operating systems and servers. There are different ways they go about this, but a popular method is phishing via emails and chats containing infected attachments as they wait for employees to click links and/or open the attachments.

Your customers often entrust their personal information to you. Your business operations depend on running in a safe and secure information technology environment. Government regulations require that all personal data is secure. So what will you do to protect your small business from hackers or IT disaster?

Having the security policies in place for your business is critical. This has become such an important feature for companies to have that many now include it in their company policies and handbooks, and include points like following password protocols and responsible Internet usage.

Your small business security should be multi-layered and packaged with several components. There are many options available: antiphishing, firewall, security watch, antivirus, antispyware, encryption. Your business will need a suite of more than one of the above.

At ABR, our IT consultants can help you determine the right technology for your small business. We can also help recommend policy items to keep your business tech safe.

A list of some common Internet security software for business:

AVG
Symantec
Panda
BitDefender
McAfee
Trend Micro
Kaspersky

What else can you do? Don’t skimp on network monitoring and regular updates. Nothing is worth losing your company data to criminal activity. Call ABR Systems Group for details on protecting your business. Our small business IT consultants in Bowling Green, Ky. are here to help.