Cyber Security is a growing problem for small business. It costs the Australian economy more than $1bn annually. Data from the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudman suggests that:
- Small Business is the target of 43% of all cyber crimes
- 60% of small business who experience a significant cyber breach go out of business within the following 6 months
- 87% of small businesses believe their business is safe from cyber attacks because they use antivirus software alone.
If you use the internet, you are at risk.
Steps You Can Take to Reduce Cyber Crime
- If you use cloud technology (the fastest growing IT niche), enable two factor authentication. Contact your cloud provider for more information. Two factor authentication enables the entry of a code which is usually sent to an app or your phone. This is a must-have for cloud software
- If you use Desktop software, Backup Regularly and store to an off-site location
- Use Complex Passwords. Unbelievably, every year, the top ten most common passwords by Fortune are published. For 2017, here is the top ten (if you use any of these, change them):
- 123456
- Password
- 12345678
- qwerty
- 12345
- 123456789
- letmein
- 1234567
- football
- iloveyou
- Limit Access to administrators and other users to your account. If your cloud software allows it, regularly check who is logging into your account and when. Xero has this functionality. Contact us to find out how you can check.
- Do not share internet banking passwords. Every user should have their own login to internet banking.
- Update Firewall and Internet Protection Software. Ensure you have the latest in online protection and if necessary, upgrade your subscription to protect you from malware, trojans, phishing schemes etc.
- Be Aware of Email Phishing. Never click on a link before investigating the authenticity of the source.
- Have a Company Security Policy and talk about cyber safety regularly with your staff
- Log Out of All Software and Turn Computers Off every night. Never leave them in sleep mode and logged in.
- Never Send Sensitive Information over Unsecured Digital Media. Some sensitive information you must not send over email or text message include:
- Tax file numbers
- Full credit card details
- User logins and passwords
There are more steps you can take to protect your business from cyber crime. Taking these basic steps will go a long way to protecting your business from cyber crime.
Contact us for more information about how to protect your business.
If Bookkeeping Relief do your bookkeeping, you can rest assured, we implement these strategies in our business and have insurance to protect against cyber crime. Your data in the cloud is protected by two step authentication and we always ensure sensitive information is sent via secure digital media
