There are plenty of threats that can face your business, but none can more devious or dangerous than the threat of cyber-crime. Cyber crime is not just something that you can read about – it’s something that will stand on the edge of your business waiting for your guards to go down (sometimes it won’t be polite enough to wait for this, either).
The thing is, cyber crime is no joke and while one attack could simply cause a bit of down-time, another could ruin your computers and bring down your business. Businesses both large and small do suffer from cybercrime and if you’re displaying your goods without any form of protection, you are a definite target.
What could make your business a target then? Any sort of web presence at all for one could make hackers come after your digital goods. Â Usually, it would be financial records that are chased – these are obviously rewarding, and any kind of business would hold either their own financial information, or the information of their customers. It’s easy to see how this can happen, with payments taking place online.
That being said, it’s common sense to place financial data under lock and key, right? Everyone knows to keep money safe. However, there are other big targets that might not be as protected as financial information and records. It could be raw data that the thieves are after. Raw data that not many people try to actually protect. Over the lifetime of a business, a company will build a sturdy collection of data up, mainly because of sales but also because of queries and lead generation. This data can be sold on to third parties – and this is what criminals want. Theft of data isn’t as risky as stealing financial information because it leaves little trace.
Cyber crime can act in a number of ways. Malicious links can be dropped around on the internet waiting for clicks. Your company can be targeted and shutdown by hackers who will steal information during the downtime. There are plenty of other ways as well. If no information is stolen, downtime still remains a big issue – this is because every second that your business is down, it is a second that you are not in business and a second that you are vulnerable. Thankfully with threats like these come solutions such as downtime intervention services and disaster recovery by Infrascale that is on offer to businesses. Having a good support team is invaluable within modern business – especially good IT support.
Preventing cybercrime is another thing that should be done. This is easy to do as well, despite the fact that there is no true way to completely eradicate the threat. If you can make your business less of an easy target, you’ll do fine. Simply destroy data that isn’t needed, encrypt data that is and secure your servers and leave no openings. Educating staff about the dangers of the web is also key – don’t assume that they know.
Why does it pay to prevent cybercrime? Because it stops you forking out to criminals and will save you from negative PR – that’s why.
Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.