Today, every single business, no matter the scope or the size, handles a great deal of digital information. User data, financial information, documents, schedules and other data is crucial to each business’s operation, and at the same time is a valuable target for cyber criminals, information thieves and other malicious parties.

It’s extremely important to take all the cyber security measures you can take to prevent any incident while handling your data and performing your business’s activities, to protect both your clients and your company. Keep reading to find a list of cyber security tips every business should take to minimize possible incidents.

Keep several passwords and user permissions

If you work with an information system, then you surely have different types of users: clients, content managers, data analysts and developers, for example. Make sure you configure different “user roles” with preset permissions so that every person gets access only to the bits of information they need to check or use, and can only do what they’re allowed to. This can reduce the damage and information loss in the event of a breach, as well as minimizing the possibility of these breaches altogether.

Handle your information properly

Make sure you constantly backup all your data and store those backups in safe places, ready to be deployed in case any eventuality occurs. Also, check how your data is being handled: try not to keep confidential or sensitive information within hard drive disks, laptops or mobile devices that can be stolen or intercepted. Instead, make sure your platform allows you to work with this information in a secure and protected way.

Install a good cyber security suite/anti virus package

To increase your protection against malware, phishing, information theft and other malicious attacks, consider installing a powerful and complete security suite, including at least an antivirus and a firewall. Keep these tools updated and make sure they’re set to scan all incoming and outgoing files and traffic, to intercept any attack and act upon it. Most internet security companies offer security suites focused on enterprises and business, with other tools that can work to make your system as secure as possible. Find some recommendations in our top 5 antivirus 2018 article.

Be careful with your passwords

Work with your employees to make sure every single password you’re using on your system follows a series of safety recommendations: 12 or more characters long, a mix of both upper and lowercase as well as numbers and symbols, and no easy to guess combination. But also, make sure no password is written on a post-it note, or a piece of paper kept close to a critical device because this would defeat the phrase’s secrecy.

Constantly update your software

Finally, make sure you constantly update and patch every software, application and tool relevant to your work throughout all your devices, and download these programs only from trusted and official sources, in order to patch any vulnerability malicious users could exploit and prevent any further attack on your system.