Your small business may need legal protection to fight back against breaches of security. Internet security best practices only go so far. You can do all the right things, and still fall victim to cybercrime in the Florida area. If you do, it’s best to have a lawyer to help you out.
Best Practices for Internet Security
Proper Training for Employees
For a lot of small businesses, breaches occur through employee mistakes. If you’re the owner of a small business, you’ve probably had to learn a ton about internet security and best practices over the years to run your business. Many small business owners assume that their employees know these same principles: how to avoid risky downloads, protect customer info, and spot a malicious email.
But it’s simply not the case that most employees know these things. At the very least, it’s dangerous to assume that they all do. Work with employees to learn best practices.
Verify Emails to Avoid Phishing Attempts
Never post your main email address on your business site. You’ll want to establish an info@ or something similar. Never use this same email address to communicate with banks or established payment systems. That way if someone uses the scraped email address from your site for a phishing attempt, it will immediately seem false.
Additionally, never take action based on the email alone without verifying the sender. Links in your email can replicate legitimate links, or sometimes go to a fake landing page that seems to mimic the real site. If you get an email asking you to take action, and it’s from a source you work with, don’t navigate through the links in the email—google the company separately.
Use Multi-factor Authentication
It’s annoying, yes. Multi-factor authentication allows passwords to bounce off of a secondary registered device. They drastically decrease the odds of someone breaking into your system. None of us like reaching for our phone to verify that it’s us logging in, but explain to your employees that it’s vital.
Keep Payment Systems Separate
If you’re taking and running business or consumer credit card and payment information—this information should be stored on a secure, local device. Ideally it’s stored on a server that you don’t use for anything else. You don’t want to browse the internet on a device that’s also holding months of sensitive payment information.
Additionally, you should work with validated, trusted payment solutions so that you don’t actually have to store your customers’ payment information. Payments should run, and you shouldn’t store their credit card information in your system.
Keep Data Backed Up
Most programs these days automatically back up information, but it’s good practice to run through your programs and files to make sure that they are backed up often. If you have a software payroll solution, make sure that you have secure copies of payments and invoices.
Cybercrime is Still Crime
Even if you do all the right things, your business can still be a target for cybercrime. You’re often an easier target than large businesses, and many small businesses have sensitive information about larger businesses. If you are the victim of cybercrime, you might have some options:
Have Legal Protection
Online crime is only going up. While the biggest companies have huge departments dedicated to best practices, small businesses can remain a target for cybercrime. It’s a good practice to have a relationship with a lawyer who can protect you in case you need to take legal action.
Our law firm can help assess your internet and email risks and make some suggestions for how you can protect yourself from online attacks. If you have been subject to a breach and want to take legal action, please get in touch.