Data security is very crucial and fundamental to all kinds of businesses from small sale enterprises to large scale enterprises. All data that’s stored in computer systems including financial records and customer’s private data, once hacked could bring down an entire business empire and damage its reputation so adversely. This breach could not only be done via hacking but also through sabotage by a company staff or physical theft of computers on-premise and many other ways. Hence, this blog post illustrates the security measures to be adopted by businesses to secure their stored data and network.
1. Strong Password Protection
Cyber-attacks occur in businesses with very weak password protocols by accessing wireless networks and company computers connected to network. Using very strong passwords is a basic security measure which is quite simple but saves unnecessary breaches as you adopt the following measures:
- You only need to create hard-to-crack passwords with combination of capital and lowercase letters, special characters, numbers, symbols which is 8-12 characters long.
- Avoid setting up easily predictable passwords like using your birth date, sequences of characters/numbers which are close together on the keyboard, standard dictionary terms and common words spelled backwards.
- According to the industry standard, it’s highly recommended to change passwords every 90 days, however you can change much more frequently if you are handling very sensitive and crucial data.
- Each user must have his/her own unique username and password when accessing company’s desktop or cloud services.
Note: NEVER write down passwords but rather create a master document with all passwords BUT you MUST ENCRYPT it with its own passcode and store it in a secure place.
2. Firewall
Set up firewall in your network system to protect it against unauthorized access into the company’s network infrastructure. Firewall gives you the control to decide what to come in and come out of your network infrastructure from and into the public internet respectively. It also allows banning/preventing access to specific websites or servers that could download viruses and malware into the company’s network system, infecting all the company’s computers and stealing data in the background.
3. Antivirus/Antimalware Protection
Install antivirus and anti-malware to protect the network and computers against viruses and malware that come in through internet or infected removable devices like flash disks and external hard drives. This is the last line of defense when an attack breaches through the network firewall.
4. Update all your programs regularly
Updating your programs frequently like antivirus programs, operating systems (e.g. Windows) ensures that any loopholes being taken advantage of by attackers are closed. It’s common sense that there is no need to have great software programs but not maintaining them in the right way. Indeed, your security programs are as good as their most recent update.
5. Secure Company Laptops
Since the company laptops are very portable, they can be easily stolen or get lost. Hence you’re OBLIGED to implement extra measure of protecting the company’s highly-sensitive data in the laptops.
- The easiest and most effective way is encryption. Encrypting the laptop makes the data unreadable without the correct password.
- An additional security feature would be configuring the laptops for remote wiping/deletion of data, whenever company staff reports to the IT personnel that his/her laptop has been stolen.
6. Basic Training of staff
It’s very critical for the staff to be trained on how to safely use the company’s systems and access online resources. They should be warned of risky usage of networks, programs and devices. Moreover, they should be proactive in doing safe document-disposal procedures and following protocols for handling lost passwords. Basically the staff should know how important your company data is and the measures to protect it.
The above 6 steps are just a glimpse of the measures to secure your company’s data and network. There are several other measures that need to be implemented like securing mobile devices, diligent monitoring, regular backups, et.c.
If you need help securing your network infrastructure or to learn more, please contact TecFlax today.
We have highly adept Network Engineers who design and implement network infrastructure from zero according to your requirements. In this regard of Data Security, we set up: strong firewalls; strong password policy in your system (either Windows or Linux). We recommend and install proven and highly-effective antivirus and anti-malware in the computers and network and train your staff on secure practices of using the company’s network resources and data. Most importantly, we create and implement security policies to be adopted by your company.