Whether you run a multinational business or you are considering starting your own business you need to consider how to keep it safe.
All businesses of any size are still vulnerable, whether that be to hackers or thieves. Once you have a level of data you become a target, as that is just as valuable as any cash kept within the premises. There are many ways however to reduce your risk not only to the physical business but within and with cybersecurity.
Create Safety Within The Culture Of Your Business
The responsibility of keeping the business safe should not just be your job. It is a responsibility that should be built into the core role of everyone within your company. In order to get your employees to share within the security responsibilities you firstly need to educate them around the security and data leaks. You cannot expect your employees to help combat these threats unless they know what they are looking for. Going through a one-off training course, however, is not enough. In order to get the best results you need to hold years (If not more frequent) meetings with your employees to update them on any changes, praise their vigilance, and reinforce best practices so they can continue to work to keep the business safe.
Know The Physical Threats
The majority of businesses are aware of online threats and the importance of cybersecurity and invest a lot of time and resources to combat these issues. This however can result in other, physically obvious, threats sometimes being missed.
It is vital that you are also protecting your business as much as possible from physical threats which can be linked to form of fires, theft, or environmental damage. It is important that is you are surrounded by nature that you are regularly checking and mitigating fire risks with understory clearing, that you have working fire alarms and a clear plan to vacate the building, that windows are secure and alarms are in place to protect your assets from theft.
Have Trusted Staff
A big risk can come from those within if you are not careful. When recruiting staff it is important that have a thorough and comprehensive interview process in place. You may choose (depending on your business type) to run background checks or just chasing references. However, it is important that before you get them to sign an employment contract that you are confident with who you are hiring. A good practice is to spend a few minutes checking social media. You can learn a lot about someone from what they share online.
Once hired, it is important that you are only providing staff with access to what they need to know and see in order to complete their role successfully. If your employee does not need access to it, don’t make it available, whether that be documents, keys, or passwords. Also, keep a record of who holds this information and ensure if they leave the company items are returned and passwords and access are changed.