Protecting Your Online Business From Cyber Threats

Updated October 6, 2023
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Being an online business owner can be a scary thing in these days. Not only are cyber criminals getting more creative, but they are also often getting better at covering their tracks. Threats can come from any direction, and it’s hard to know how to keep your business safe while also keeping it inviting and user-friendly for your customers. Luckily, there are some ways to safeguard your business while keeping it up and running just like normal.

Look to the pros

Someone who’s really good at protection of online customers and transactions is the online casino business. Casinos work with a high volume of currency transactions, while also processing and storing large amounts of personal and payment information. Such websites can be a good inspiration when setting up your own security system. You can check out new Canadian online casinos at https://new-casino.ca/ and get a quick overview of how these businesses protect themselves and their customers.

Educate employees

Cyber security involves the entire company, and all employees should have at least a rudimentary understanding of the basics. It is well worth the time and money to invest in a cyber security training program, where employees are taught how to identify threats, what to do in case of suspicious activity and also how to avoid threats in the first place. Similarly, having a plan for all employees to follow when they do detect a threat is worth its weight in gold. Such an incident response plan should clearly outline the course of action for all employees in case of a security breach.

Encryption

All the data you process and store online should be encrypted, and this can be done by installing a proxy. The proxy also gives you other advantages, by making it very difficult for hackers to see or track your company’s online activities, making it much more difficult to hack into your data.

Data back up

Not all online threats are there to use your data in a malicious way – some threats are actually pure malware with little other purpose than to ruin your systems. To avoid losing all your progress to such an event, it is important to do regular data backups, which are stored in a secured way. Backups should be done on a schedule, and it is a good idea to implement both short-term and long-term backup plans.

Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication or MFA is a verification process requiring you to provide multiple, usually two, proofs of identity before access to an account. This can involve for example a pre-set password and a one-time code, meaning that even if someone gains access to your passwords, they won’t immediately have access to your accounts. MFA is a good idea both for internal accounts, and for any customer accounts that you process through your website.

Administrative access

It can seem tempting to allow all employees who work on the website to have administrative rights to it, but when it comes to cyber security, you are better off limiting the number of admins. Fewer admins mean fewer points of contact for a potential threat, and it also means fewer people likely to make mistakes. If there are default passwords shared by several members of your team, make sure that these are changed on a regular basis, and that they are set up following a stringent protocol for difficult passphrases.

Stay awake

The most important thing is still to stay on top of things and to never get complacent. Make sure that all employees understand potential cyber threats, and that there is a system in place to safeguard, backup and respond to any threats when and if they do happen.

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