Whether your company operates entirely online or just has a big online presence, you could be a target of cyber criminals at some point. And when that happens, you’ll have a lot at stake, as cyber crime costs the average business $11.7 million annually. Here are the steps you can take to reduce the chance that your online business will be a victim of cyber crime.
Be Careful When Creating Passwords
If you want to safeguard your business, you need to create the right passwords for your website, email, and any online accounts for your business. Most people don’t take this step, making them an easy target for cyber criminals who don’t take long to guess passwords. In fact, some of the top passwords last year included 123456, qwerty, password, and Google. These are all bad passwords to have because they’re so popular and thus easy to guess.
To reduce the odds of a hacker guessing your password, make sure it has a combination of lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. In addition, most experts now claim passwords should be at least 16-characters long, and some even suggest 24 characters. You should also avoid using the same password for every account, and be sure to change your passwords every couple months.
Prevent Viruses
Another way cyber crime can affect online businesses is that cyber criminals put viruses on your company’s computers. When they do this, they can gain access to your system, which may allow them to view sensitive information, such as bank account numbers, passwords, and email content. This is how cyber crime often costs businesses millions of dollars.
You can prevent this by ensuring no one at your company opens emails with links from unknown senders. You should also make sure your computers all feature firewalls and programs that can detect and defend against viruses.
Get Cyber Liability Insurance Coverage
Cyber crime is so common these days that you can get insurance coverage specifically to protect your online businesses from it. Most business insurance providers offer it, because they know just how much money and time cyber crime can cost you. Though having strong passwords and anti-virus programs on your computers will certainly reduce your chance of being a victim of cyber crime, it’s not a guarantee against it. If you’re still targeted, you’ll be glad to have the peace of mind cyber insurance will bring you.
When you have cyber insurance, you’ll have some protection against the major financial losses you might take when your system is hacked. There are different types of cyber coverage available to online businesses, and you can choose based on your particular field and how well you want to be protected against cyber crime.
Keep in mind that after you get hacked, you’ll have to pay for legal fees, possible fines, and credit monitoring for any customers who have been affected. If you can’t afford these costs on your own, you need to get cyber liability coverage today to protect your online business.
