Most of the small business owners running business operations at a small scale think that their businesses are too small to be a good target for cybercriminals and hackers. But the fact is that cyber attacks on small businesses are common these days and increasing as well. Small businesses are easy targets for hackers and attacks can be greatly profitable for malicious persons.
As a shipping business, you might be dealing with a huge amount of customer data and information while delivering goods and products to their doorsteps. That’s why you must have a solid cybersecurity strategy at the place to keep sensitive data and information of customers safe and protected from malicious persons. With all this in mind, here we have compiled top cybersecurity tips for shipping businesses that can easily be implemented to strengthen the security of your shipping business.
Implement a Vigorous Firewall
A firewall is a great cybersecurity barrier between your business network and the outsider to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing your network and sensitive customer data stored on your database. According to an article ‘Top 5 Cybersecurity Tips for Your Small Business’ published on Nogentech, a firewall adds a strong security layer that makes your business network protected from malicious persons. Not all firewalls are created equal, so choose a reliable and next-generation firewall for the network of your shipping businesses to prevent cyber attacks and other online security issues.
Enforce Password Policies
You must create and implement password policy and require all your employees to set strong, hard to guess, and secure passwords for their online accounts and other logins. Whether it is your computer, business system login, online account, or social media profile, choose unique and strong passwords for all. A strong password includes letters, numbers, special characters, and at least 10 digits lengthy. Also, ask your employees to change passwords every three months.
Educate your Employees
Make sure you offer regular cybersecurity awareness training to your employees so they find out and prevent cybersecurity attacks on their own. Educate them about the safe use of the internet, basic online security tips, and how to handle sensitive customer data effectively. Also, train them to avoid phishing attacks and other security threats to keep business and customer data safe. Based on the specialists' from a Getfinanceessay company observations cybersecurity is now one of the important things to consider when managing business and finance.
Think Twice Before Downloading
The Internet is full of malicious stuff that can harm your business systems and computers. That is the reason, you should be cautious when downloading and installing applications, software, and browser plugins to stay safe from malicious stuff. Always download software and applications from trusted vendors and avoid unknown online sources when it comes to download something from the web.
Regular Backups
Shipping businesses get more new customers on a regular basis and it ends up with more sensitive customer data to be kept private and protected. A regular data back up policy comes in handy to keep all your business and customer data in safe hands. By doing so, you can easily and quickly recover all your data in case of an unexpected disaster, ransomware attack or hardware failure, etc. Cloud data back solutions are great for regular data backups as they allow you to access business data and information anytime, anywhere.
Keep your Software and Firmware Updated
Vulnerabilities in computer software or operating system can end up with lost customer data and open holes for hackers. Up to date software, applications and operating systems are good for shipping businesses as they are less likely to hack into by hackers. Make sure to install system updates and security patches to prevent cybercriminals and hackers from accessing your business network or business data. Be quick to install available software updates and security patches as it is one of the best ways to prevent cybersecurity attacks.
Perform vulnerability scanning and penetration testing
Vulnerabilities within the business network act as unlocked doors for the criminals that can provide easy access to critical business systems and customer data stored on the database. Regular penetration testing is the only way to find out and address vulnerabilities and other security concerns. By faking a cyber-attack, a penetration test safely reveals the vulnerabilities and other security issues within the business network so the business can fix them properly to prevent cyber-attacks and hacking attempts in the future.
Secure Data Handling
Educate your employees for secure and safe business data handling to prevent access of third parties to your business data and information. Instead of sending business files and data via emails, encourage your employees to share files via secure data traveler devices. The use of reliable cloud data solutions is also a great way to limit access to business data and information by customizing the data access limitations. You can also invest in a reliable file-sharing solution that offers greater data security and fast file sharing speed. By setting files access limitations, you can prevent third party access to the business and customer data.
