2. Enforce strong passwords and Two-factor authentication (2FA)

It should be common knowledge by now that weak passwords, such as those that only contain letters, can be easily hacked. As a bare minimum, you should mandate your employees to use passwords comprising more than 20 characters and a combination of numbers, letters and symbols.

3. Back up data to the cloud regularly

No matter how small your business is, there will be critical data that you cannot afford to lose. For example, your sales team may maintain an ongoing spreadsheet of clients and their status, updated every day, or your finance team may have a document listing unpaid vendors. Even your marketing team members may be working on projects involving complex artwork.

If these files are not backed up regularly, your business can take a heavy toll in the event of a cyber attack that damages their devices. Make it a standard practice to back up data at regular intervals so that critical data can be recovered first in the event of a cyberattack.

4. Detect and thwart phishing attempts

Phishing has been an effective method for attackers to breach business networks. It is usually executed by sending an email or message to an unsuspecting employee and tricking them into sharing data such as passwords or company bank account logins.

The email may look authentic to an untrained eye and appear to be sent from a coworker or friend. It will have a fake hyperlink that redirects the recipient to a form to enter their data. Sometimes attackers may also make scam calls or even combine phone, email and messaging together.

The best defence against such phishing attacks are the employees themselves. Advise them to refrain from clicking suspicious links in emails or sharing sensitive business data without approval from management.