6 Important Small Business Cyber Security Tips

Chances are, you think twice before entering your credit card information online to buy something, watch out for malicious links in emails and keep your PC updated against viruses, spyware and hackers.

However, how much thought do you put into your small business data security and protecting client information?

Hopefully a lot, because according to Microsoft:

• An attacker resides within a network for an average of 146 days before detection

• The average cost of a data breach to a business is $3.8 million

• The total cost of cybercrime to the global community in 2016 was $500 billion

• 63 percent of attacks are the result of compromised user passwords and usernames

As these threats continue to become more sophisticated, legislation must too. ]

In Canada, many government departments such as the Department of Justice, RCMP, Public Safety Canada and Global Affairs Canada work together with international, federal and provincial law enforcement agencies against cybercrime.

That’s great, but you want to stop any potential attacks before your clients’ data security is breached!

And, if you’re thinking that your site is too small to appeal to hackers, think again. Sometimes a cybercriminal’s intention isn’t to gather sensitive content, but to relay spam emails from your server.

Let’s use the example of a membership site for these small business cybersecurity tips.

A membership website has specific resources available for members who generally pay a one-time or recurring fee to get content such as videos, eBooks, articles or tutorials.

Because people are entering sensitive information such as email addresses, passwords and payment information to access my content, we need to be vigilant about how we keep them safe from online threats. (A secure site is also more likely to earn trust, which in turn can increase revenue.)

To help safeguard your clients’ data security, I suggest that you:

1. Choose a reputable web host. Don’t just go for the cheapest! I compiled a list of web hosting providers that I recommend; you can view it here.

2. Install an SSL certificate on your site. This means having HTTPS vs. HTTP in the URL. This is the prefix to your web address, and the SSL provides additional security and makes it harder for hackers to access.

You can often add this service to your web hosting package for free, or for a small cost. An added bonus: a secure site can actually rank higher in Google.

3. As soon as you see a new software update, install it. Many membership sites are built in WordPress, which lets you simply click the ‘Update Now’ button. This helps keep cybercriminals from taking advantage of security flaws in older versions.

Similarly, look for plugins to help manage online security.

4. Enforce complex passwords. Request or even demand that users create passwords with a combo of upper and lowercase letters, symbols and numbers. This will deter people from using ‘12345’ as a password.

You can also install a plugin on your WordPress site that only gives someone a number of tries to log in to before they’re locked out.

5. Approve comments manually. Spammers love unattended comments! They can post links there that a) may drive traffic back to their site and b) may trick Google (however briefly) into thinking that their site has valuable content.

6. Clean up information that’s no longer relevant. Previous members, people who have cancelled, those who have completed your course… get rid of user info and payment info as often as you can.

By following these small business cyber security tips, you can minimize the risk that your website is going to be targeted by scammers or cybercriminals.

Don’t cut corners when it comes to protecting client information, and you can create a safe space for loyal fans who feel comfortable handing over their personal and payment info.

Of course, there are many more components to maintaining a secure website.

The Magazine came to live in early 1700s during the outbreak of the World War. During those times, it is used as a support for politics, government, criticisms and information that aims to be affirmed or contradicted either through the release of researches or study results. After gaining the freedom, various companies got the idea on starting a magazine publishing business that would evolve in different aspects of life. People started buying these magazines with the goal of keeping themselves updated with their environment and to expand their knowledge. That was successful.

Today, Magazine is probably the number one source of information readily available for everyone. Its readers range from kids to students and to executives. There are actually two types of Magazines. One of these is the consumer magazines that are widely available in the country. The other one is the business magazine that can be availed on a subscription basis. Both magazines usually come in a weekly, monthly, or quarterly release with up to date contents.

For a kid, reading magazines with graphical representations like comics is a good way to start learning. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the early years are a key period for the development of intelligence, personality and behavior of a child.

For students, magazines are good source of information when doing research for school. Since educational magazines have updated content, further reading of it could truly contribute well to their learning.

As for professionals or executives, being the captain of their own journey is really essential. To be constantly updated on workplace and business issues, reading business and other related magazines is important. It gives them not just ideas but awareness on the current issues that are important in their field.

Through the years, magazine has existed with the aim of giving the freshest and accurate information to its readers. Among the famous magazines in the United States include the BusinessWeek for business, American Girl for children, Drovers for agriculture, Sports Illustrated for sports, Cook’s for cooking and recipes, American Baby for parenting, Liberty for politics, Playboy for pornography, Adventist Review for religion, National Geographic for science, WikiMusicGuide for Music Lifestyle and many more.

Reading is indeed, a good way of expanding our knowledge and awareness. There are several reading materials that have great potentials of contributing to our craving mind and magazine is one of them. Choosing our point of interest is definitely endless with magazines.

One of the things individuals need to keep in mind when they are using the internet for research purposes is that the information obtained during the search isn’t always verifiable or legitimate. Customers that are looking for significant tire reviews should consider looking for forums or blog posts that are supported by a host not affiliate with a tire manufacturer or distributor. These posts can contain very useful and important information for concerned customers such as previous experiences with a specific company, both good and bad, as well as which manufacturers, distributors or vendors are offering a tire rebate for new and existing customers.

Tire reviews can be written by any individual regardless of whether or not they have had any experience with the product for which they are writing the review about. It is because of this that the information they provide may not be relevant, or it may be biased depending on what they were offered for posting such a review for a company. Customer reviews can also be influenced by any offers made by the company with which they conducted their business. For instance, customers that are given a tire rebate for shopping with a particular company are more likely to give a favorable review even if certain aspects of the experience were unsatisfactory.

Believe it or not there are tire companies that solicit outstanding tire reviews from their customers by offering them discounts on their current purchase or by making a tire rebate available for any future business the customer decides to conduct with them. It may not be a very ethical way of producing reviews but it does happen. These reviews are the ones usually posted on the company’s respective website in order to entice customers to buy from, or do business with them.

Tire reviews that are found on a company’s website are often simplistic in nature without providing much information about the customer leaving the review, which makes it hard to verify if the review was posted by a sincere customer or by one that was offered some sort of savings opportunity in the form of a tire rebate. The reviews posted on the website of a specific tire company should be taken with a grain of salt since they are normally manufactured in order to make the company appear to be advantageous to do business with.

Some of the best tire reviews that can be found on the internet are provided by people that have either had significant experience within the tire industry or from people that have no motivating interest to provide a company with a review they are not worthy of. Consumer product reviews of this nature can be found in a number of different places such as online magazines that are tailored or designed to allow third-party entities to conduct testing on several products or services, such as installing tires or which company has the best tire rebate for the brand or model of the tire being advertised.

Information Security sounds like a complicated task, but it really isn’t. Knowing what needs protected and how to protect it are the keys to security success.

Twelve Information Security Principles of Success

1. No such thing as absolute security. Given enough time, tools, skills, and inclination, a hacker can break through any security measure.
2. The three security goals are: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. Confidentiality means to prevent unauthorized access. Integrity means to keep data pure and unchanged. Availability means to keep data available for authorized use.
3. Defense in Depth as Strategy. Layered security measures. If one fails, then the other measures will be available. There are three elements to secure access: prevention, detection, and response.
4. When left on their own, people tend to make the worst security decisions. Examples include falling for scams, and taking the easy way.
5. Computer security depends on two types of requirements: Functional and Assurance. Functional requirements describe what a system should do. Assurance requirements describe how a functional requirement should be implemented and tested.
6. Security through obscurity is not an answer. Security through obscurity means that hiding the details of the security mechanism is sufficient to secure the system. The only problem is that if that secret ever gets out, the whole system is compromised. The best way around this is to make sure that no one mechanism is responsible for the security.
7. Security = Risk Management. Security work is a careful balance between the level of risk and the expected reward of expending a given amount of resources. Assessing the risk and budgeting the resources accordingly will help keep abreast of the security threat.
8. Three type of security controls: Preventative, Detective, and Responsive. Basically this principle says that security controls should have mechanisms to prevent a compromise, detect a compromise, and respond to a compromise either in real-time or after.
9. Complexity is the enemy. Making a network or system too complex will make security more difficult to implement.
10. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt do not work. Trying to “scare” management into spending money on security is not a good way to get the resources needed. Explaining what is needed and why is the best way to get the resources needed.
11. People, process, and technology are all needed to secure a system or facility. People are needed to use the processes and technology to secure a system. For example, it takes a person to install and configure (processes) a firewall (technology).
12. Disclosure of vulnerabilities is good. Let people know about patches and fixes. Not telling users about issues is bad for business.

These are by no means a fix-all for security. The user must know what they are up against and what is needed to secure their system or network. Following the twelve principles will help achieve success.

HIPAA

HIPPA secures your data that is held by a provider or health insurance firm. However, HIPAA rules do not apply if your information is shared with an organization or person not covered by HIPAA. For example, if you post your health condition information on a message board, social media, open email — it is not protected.

NEVER post anything online that you do not want made public. With the plethora of social media sites and constantly changing security setting updates, vigilance and caution is the key prevention.

Medical Identity Thieves

If you have your health information stored on a computer, make sure you keep your data secure with a strong password with at least 12 characters minimum made up of numbers, symbols, capital letters, and lower-case letters. If you opt for a password manager application, be sure to fully vet it for the most robust encryption.

What medical identity thieves do is try to obtain drugs, medical treatment, or even surgery by attempting to use your information.

In fact, one breach can wreak havoc with stolen identities from hundreds of people.

You can protect from this possibility by verifying any source you decide to share data with and shred any healthcare forms. However, if you think that your information was compromised in any way, you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

Social Security Number (SSN)

It may sound a bit far-fetched, but the Identity Theft Resource Center says that almost 50% of identity theft originates in the healthcare sector in medical offices, hospitals, insurance carriers, diabetes supply distributors, etc.

The route to your information often comes from your social security number. Be very cautious when banking, financial institutions, nonprofits and many other companies request it. They usually do it because if you do not pay, it is easier to turn your account over to a collection agency.

Beware of Phishing

It might sound like a no-brainer, but never post your SSN anywhere on a social site or send it in an email. If the number is needed for 1099 purposes, for example, when an accountant might ask for it, you are better off calling and giving the number to the accountant by telephone.

Also, beware of phishing. This occurs if you receive an email from someone saying they are the Social Security Administration. The subject line says something like “get protected” with an urgent call to action. The email goes on to say the government is trying to protect your personal information and if you only click this link, you will be protected. Of course, if you do, a virus is downloaded onto your computer allowing thieves to collect your personal information.

This article will familiarize you with the definition, advantages and disadvantages of Information Communication Technology (ICT). It is important for you to read carefully to understand the basics of Information Communication Technology (ICT).

The definition

Information Communication Technology (ICT), or Information Technology (IT) as abbreviated, stands for the use of computers and telecommunications technology and devices to produce, manipulate, store, transmit and securely retrieve information.

ICT Tools

These are the tools or gadgets that are used to locate, explore and exchange information. They include the following devices:-

• Computers – Desktops, Laptops, Palmtops, PDAs, Mainframes

• Telephones

• Mobile Phones (GSM)

• Fax machines

• Television sets

• Satellites

• Internet

Advantages of ICT

Following are the advantages of Information Communication Technology (ICT):

1. It provides timely, better and cheaper access to knowledge and information.

2. It speeds up business transactions, productions and management processes.

3. ICT has made possible for people worldwide, to access internet, in a new and exciting way.

4. With ICT tools, business dealings and transactions have moved closer.

5. It provides a very reliable, flexible, fast and accurate means of disseminating information in modern times.

6. It provides employment opportunities and opens new career fields for people around the world.

7. It is also one of the best mediums for giving out instructions in schools.

Disadvantages of ICT

Despite its numerous benefits, ICT has few limitations, some of which include:-

1. Job loss: ICT application in offices may cut down few jobs as manual jobs and tasks are being automated.

2. Costly: ICT components and tools can be expensive and unaffordable to general public.

3. Loss of Social Bond: Implementation of ICT in every sphere of life is limiting personal human relationships and physical contacts as more work and interactions are based online.

4. Crime: ICT may lead to increase in crime ratings. People are being defrauded online. Cyber crimes like identity-theft, credit card scams, systems hacking, and piracy are on the rise. Internet is flooded with cyber criminals like hackers, perverts, and stalkers.

5. Abuse: This is another disadvantage of ICT. Some examples include pornography (especially child pornography), plagiarism, cyber war, e-mail spams, etc.

6. Addiction: The use of ICT is addictive. Obsessive users can be found spending hours online. This behaviour may lead to stress and other health related complications.

Many parents also believe that the most common adverse effects of ICT may include contact of their child with aggressive or inappropriate contents, endangering their physical health (visual impairment, rigidity, spinal injuries) as a result of prolonged seating in front of the computer, obesity, and loss of contact with the real world leading to addiction. Besides, they also emphasize all positive effects are the acquisitions of new knowledge and skills that the child can benefit from IT for future employment. Parent’s who feel that the use of ICT is more harmful than beneficial to their child; argue by claiming their views that a four-year-old child is too young to be exposed to ICT.