Six Advantages Of Hiring An Infosec Biz to Safeguard Your Business

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A few days ago I received an online Facebook chat message from a former colleague asking for a donation for the surgery of a close friend. I eagerly volunteered to help and took a few details including where the money was to be transferred. However, on calling her I was informed that it was not her that sent the message,  but an ‘ imposter’ who had replicated her Facebook page and was contacting all the people on her list seeking a donation. Now imagine if I were a customer of yours and had received a similar message from your business Facebook page?

As businesses become more accessible to their customers, they unfortunately also become increasingly accessible to cyber criminals.

Smaller Businesses are the most vulnerable to cyber attacks

A 2013 report on information security by the U.K government confirms that cyber attacks on small businesses are up by 10%, with 87% of small businesses reporting some form of security breach in the last year. The report also highlighted that majority of these breaches were a result of staff action and that small businesses were often found lacking in user awareness, mobile device working policies, removable media controls, monitoring, network security and in their ability to respond to an incident of security threat. No wonder then smaller businesses offer the path of least resistance to attackers for gaining access to valuable customer data including credit card details, intellectual property and even money in the bank. As per an internet threat report published by Symantec in April this year, the highest growth in targeted attacks was seen in businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

Look beyond an anti-virus program to secure your business

Given these facts, it’s safe to assume that your business is unsafe and that you need to defend it against the most serious cyber threat. While email security is one aspect of safeguarding your business, unauthorized access to your business information via  laptops, desktops, wi-fi printers / router, mobile devices and other access channels such as social media and cloud based services needs to be monitored. This means that instead of relying on a member of your staff or a part- time technology personnel, you need to consider hiring the services of a professional IT support company that is capable of deploying device controls, updated firewalls and a comprehensive network web security gateway.

IT support program can offer the following benefits to your businesses:

  • Examine the business hardware for possible network intrusions
  • Educate staff on desktop policies
  • Check for outdated security definitions on systems
  • Monitor incoming and outgoing traffic to detect potential threat
  • Secure your website
  • Streamline your network structure for ease of administration and scalability

Looking ahead it is predicted that social media, cloud service providers and mobiles will increasingly become the new cyber security battleground.  This means multi-layer security software, an online user policy, installing security software on mobile devices and full risk assessment before signing up for a cloud service. Make sure your you seek adequate information on these aspects from your prospective IT support company.

 

How safe is your customer data across various cloud platforms?

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Though the ‘cloud’ has been around for a while now and have gained tremendous momentum, there are still some companies that are still hesitant of the risks whilst others are revelling and basking with the opportunities the cloud presents.

For those companies who are still at cross roads, it’s only a matter of time before they find themselves in a position where the cloud is the only option – be it private cloud or public cloud.

But what are some of the risks this opportunity brings with it?
Let’s not forget, whatever option a company uses, there will always be risks.  It’s just a matter of the size of that company’s risks appetite.

 

What are some of the controls you can harness to support the protection of data?

 

Build Platforms With Security in Mind

We use third parties who specialize in securing data because they know way more about it than we ever could. We do what we do well, and we let them focus on what they do well. We also try to design our platforms with data security in mind from the beginning. If the architecture is full of holes from the start, no amount of security is going to help.

 

Use SSL Certification, Malware Scans, VeriSign

Our website is scanned on a regular basis for malware and other security risks, and we also possess an SSL digital certificate so our customers know our webpages are safe. Our website is also SSL encrypted. Lastly, our website displays the VeriSign seal, which is another way our customers know they can use our website without risk.

 

Choose Partners Carefully

As a scrappy startup, it’s very easy to find low-cost providers of analytics or customer relationship management (CRM) software. We choose to work closely with name-brand partners. We research the security of those firms and trust them implicitly, given that a lot of the “big guys” — large companies with a lot more to lose — choose them. Invest in security from day one to ensure customer trust.

 

Plan, Then Create a Backup Plan

Take the most obvious steps in order to ensure the safety of your customers’ data — this includes ensuring all firmware/software is up-to-date, utilizing SSL certificates to encrypt important data transmission and focusing on code security to eliminate potential database and XSS vulnerabilities. Then, create a backup plan in case that fails. Store critical customer data in encrypted formats!
Eliminate Possible Security Problems With Beyond Security

Our e-commerce site accepts large credit card payments daily for big-ticket items, so we understand the importance of protecting our customers’ data. For this imperative task, we use Beyond Security (beyondsecurity.com), a service that performs daily testing on our website to eliminate the possibility of website security problems, like malware, SQL injection and cross-site scripting.