One of the biggest dangers facing businesses involves protecting customer and supplier data. Here’s what to do to protect important information
We live in a world of smart objects, in which the Internet of Things rules the roost. These tools, in addition to conditioning some daily gestures, offer numerous advantages at the industrial level. The main problem of IoT is cyber security, and there are some decisions to be taken to avoid hacker attacks.
Cyber security nowadays is a hot topic for individuals as well as for large companies and SMEs. At the same time, it is impossible for an entrepreneur to think of not adopting new technologies in his production processes, because he would be too disadvantaged compared to the competition. For this reason, IoT objects are not to be feared, but when and companies purchase these devices, security solutions must always be improved. Said in this way it may seem an abstract phrase, difficult to put into practice. In reality there are a whole series of actions, not even too complicated, that can be adopted quickly.
Advises and risks
The first advice is to follow the new European Privacy Regulation. The Regulation will come into force from 2018 and will affect at different levels all companies operating in the European market. For large companies, as well as for SMEs, the challenge will be to be able to adopt all the rules within the regulation in order to limit the risk of cyber attacks. It is always necessary to equip oneself against external dangers and against those internal to the company. In the first case it is necessary to have up-to-date antivirus software and specific security solutions, perhaps dictated by a specific professional figure within the company. In the second case it is necessary to invest on the formation of the staff. At the moment the main risk for an SME, as well as for a private person, is represented by ransomware. These are special malware that encrypt the files on the victims’ devices and ask the user for a ransom to get the documents back. But beware also of phishing campaigns. Generally used to steal important data and information of a company.
How to defend yourself
One of the first tips to secure your company data is definitely backup. Performing regular backups will allow us to always have all the data of our company at hand. In addition, it is always necessary to make a map of the data held by the SME. Such as details of customers, suppliers, and also about the working processes and know-how within the company.