If you are a small business, it can be difficult to ensure that your IT is safe and secure, yet cost effective at the same time. Data security is important no matter how small or big your business is. Hackers will go after any size business at this day in age. In fact, hackers often use their skills on small business’ before moving on to larger organizations, in order to gain experience and practice. Furthermore, viruses, phishing and worms can affect any individual and any business. If your business’ IT is not sufficiently protected, you may potentially suffer from a total loss of data, which would be absolutely catastrophic for most businesses. If an IT system goes down, it means a very large amount of data is lost and productivity goes way down, thus wasting a lot of time and money. For instance, to get an organization back up and running after being hacked, a small business owner can potentially spend tens of thousands of dollars. This can be detrimental.
The first step for small sized business’s to take in order to prevent lost or stolen data is to comprehend exactly what the threats are. Spyware, spam, worms, viruses and Trojans can all result in a disastrous breach of security and lost data. Spam is an especially huge problem for both individuals and business’s, and it can lead to identity and financial theft and fraud, as well as malware infection, and of course loss of data. Thus, it is advised that you never open an email from an unknown sender, and especially do not open unfamiliar attachments. Caution must be used by your employees when visiting all websites as well as when downloading all documents and software. The most innocent looking file can contain malicious coding, and easily enter your network when downloaded. Just one wrong download can lead to an entire network at risk of crashing, thus it is essential to educate your users and employees on specific policies and procedures which can be made in order to be safe. The importance of exercising caution cannot be stressed enough. Implement strategies which ensure the proper way to use the company computers and how to safely download programs and applications. These strategies may save your business.
It can be somewhat difficult to ensure your employees exercise IT security as well as take it seriously. Therefore, you must ensure that your IT operations staff is technically competent, and up to date on cutting-edge security programs and features. At DKC we can offer you multiple security features to ensure your peace of mind. Your employees are the ones who have the power to keep your data safe. Recommendations on how to protect passwords and other security features are usually given by good, useful and reliable IT support staff. Be sure to inform yourself on the cost of any solution provider you hire, especially for help desk support and emergency fraud situations, as these potential costs may override the benefits of low upfront prices.
Your data is so vital to your business that it is the life force, heart and soul of your business, big or small. Taking the necessary steps to ensure its security enables you to be confident in the growth and success of your company. Let DKC Associates help keep your organizations data safe, as we have vast knowledge and experience in IT security.
