The U.S. Intelligence Service has declared cybercrime to now be the No. 1 threat today instead of terrorism. In 2014, over 600 million instances of data theft were reported, and small businesses made up over 40% of all cybercrime targets!
How do you ensure your business won’t become a sad statistic in 2015? Follow these 5 simple cybersecurity tips from OffSite IT:
- Backup! Backup! Backup!
You’ve probably heard horror stories about businesses that suffer catastrophic data loss because of a hurricane or flood, but you don’t often hear about the businesses set back because of a surprise power outage, a burnt-out server, an employee accidentally deleting a file, or all sorts of other “minor” disasters.
The truth is that ANY data loss can spell disaster for a business, and there’s only one way to stay safe: BACKUP CONSTANTLY. The team at OffSite IT will help you setup a comprehensive business continuity solution that protects ALL your data from disaster, making it easy to stay operational no matter what the future throws at you.
- Keep those apps updated!
One of the biggest causes of data breach is a vulnerability from a 3rd party program, like Adobe Acrobat. You know all those annoying pop-up messages that tell you there’s a new version of the program ready to download? How often do you ignore them? That’s the leading cause of malware infections and intrusions!
Those updates are CRITICAL to patching newly discovered security vulnerabilities, and you NEED to update your systems as soon as they become available. With OffSite IT as your IT security team, you won’t have to worry – we monitor all your systems and apply critical updates as soon as they’re available.
- Encrypt your data!
Information is constantly flowing in and out of your business – emails to clients, employees accessing websites, phone calls and faxes being placed, and more. Are you certain that no one is covertly spying on that important data as it passes in or out of your network?
You need to ensure your important data only reaches those you’ve authorized. The key is total encryption – scrambling data before it leaves, and unscrambling it when it arrives. It sounds complicated and exhausting, but with OffSite IT as your Chicago, IL and Southern California IT department, you’ll never even know it’s happening – we make encryption run smoothly and quietly so you can just get to work.
- Manage your employees’ passwords better!
Do you use one password for all your systems? Or maybe your employees have access to multiple systems in the office, but use the same password for each one? Are they using something like password123 or their birthdate?
Then your systems are vulnerable to attack!
Too many businesses don’t use proper password security, and they leave their important data at risk because of it. You need unique passwords for every employee and every service, easy to remember but not easy to steal. OffSite IT will help you with password management to ensure your systems are safe.
- Centralize your IT security!
IT security can sound exhausting, right? Firewalls to manage, passwords to protect, emails to secure, backups to monitor… there’s so much to do, and it’s easy to miss something.
With a comprehensive, centralized IT security solution from OffSite IT, you don’t have to worry about IT security again. We link all aspects of IT security together into one easily monitored and managed system that controls EVERYTHING. We keep your systems protected 24/7/365, and all you have to do is use them.
Sounds good, right? Find out how simple Chicago, IL and Southern California IT security is with the right team on your side. Contact OffSite IT at (866) 828-6674 or info@offsiteIT.com to schedule your security consultation.
