You might chuckle now at the way small to mid-sized business and service agencies used to back up their info on a disk for someone to take home at night so it would be off site in case of a break-in or fire. Even a few years ago, experts recommended backing up a hard drive, then copying the zip file to a CD.

Unfortunately, the threats to our business critical information are much more sophisticated these days. Definitely not a laughing matter. The bad guys sneak in from anywhere in the world to infect and/or freeze your data. Are you ready for this?

Don’t be one of the four out of five businesses where concerns about cyber risks are left to the IT people to put some kind of firewall in place. Most industries and service sectors use technology that is far past that kind of compartmentalization of responsibility. You need a plan that crosses all your business operations while coordinating people, processes and technology.

Let’s review five basic steps of a plan that ensures the security of your databases.

1. Risk assessment.

Start by identifying areas that need to be improved; e.g. inadequate hardware, outdated software, sensitive data moving on and off site, employee carelessness.

2. Preventive steps.

Strengthen your current IT system by updating devices with enhanced security features and implementing secure cloud services, including regular or continuous data backup.

3. Response and recovery strategies.

Use software that is able to:

• Segment the network and shut down affected units
• Roll back files to a point in time when they are clean
• Provide business continuity so all users can continue working on uninfected devices and can still collaborate with other internal and external users, including those valuable customers

4. Role of employees.

Everyone working in your business has a responsibility for data security from being able to identify suspicious emails and files to alerting IT staff. To make sure there will be an immediate response to a data security breach, you should:

• Develop policies, procedures and protocol for identifying and responding to cyber attacks, phishing scams and any other IT irregularities
• Update policies and procedures regularly, as appropriate
• Train all users in these guidelines

5. Plan maintenance and testing.

All the procedures and protocol in your cyber attack response plan need to be reviewed and revised as necessary if there are changes to devices and software. It is also important to test the system and employee response regularly by setting up security breaches. Debrief the response for lessons learned to apply moving forward.

If you are running an SMB and have never had problems with malware and other security breaches, you might not be fully committed to implementing a response to a cyber attack. However, a risk assessment is always a good place to start.

Contact Digital6 Technologies now. One of the cloud solution specialists can work with you to review your file management practices and identify areas where your data security is weak or even non-compliant.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the thought of how vulnerable you are to a cyber attack on your business. The Digital6 specialist can recommend the business tools and cloud services that are just right to keep your business’ data and other business information secure.