Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years (probably not since you’re running a business!), it’s likely you’ve seen at least one of the stories about ransomware popping up in newsfeeds.
And quite honestly, they’re pretty scary. No one wants to think about their business being held hostage – especially for money they likely can’t afford.
As a small business owner, is this something you need to worry about? Yes and no.
In mid-August, NPR released a story detailing what experts say companies should do if they fall prey to ransomware, and it’s worth a read. That being said, it’s not worth obsessing over for most businesses we work with, for one simple reason: you’re too small of a target.
While some smaller places have been hit, most of the time the people behind these kinds of attacks are aiming at bigger businesses – where they believe the cost of paying the ransom will be seen as a smaller hassle than trying to hold out and fight back.
Still, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t engage in any type of security solutions.
Below, we’ll cover our suggestions for how small businesses can give themselves a bit of digital protection without breaking the bank. Most of these are fairly straightforward and common sense – but they’re still worth pointing out.
1.) Don’t give access to important data.
For example, only give passwords to those who are trustworthy and really need to have them.
2.) Don’t skimp on passwords.
We know how easy it is to use your kids’ birthdays for every password. After all, you want something easy to type in – something you won’t forget.
But don’t do it. One of the best ways you can protect your digital belongings is to create strong passwords together with two factor authentication – particularly for the very important stuff. Speaking of passwords…
3.) Change these passwords often.
Same arguments as above. Worried about forgetting your passwords? We often recommend storing all passwords in the secure software LastPass.
Not only does it offer additional protection, you can set it so that it will automatically record new passwords for specific sites and accounts as you create them – so there’s never any question of forgetting how to log into that bank account you only access once a year.
The best part? You only have to remember the single master password that gets you into LastPass itself.
4.) Have backups.
Ransomware works by encrypting your data and demanding money to decrypt it. But if you have backups of all the data you need, you won’t be cornered if someone tries to blackmail you in this way.
Not exactly sure what goes into backing up your website? No problem – we now offer site backup solutions. And we can point you in the direction of quality IT support if you have other data to backup.
If you still have some security concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions.
