Keep Your Website a Safe Distance from Thieves

Have you ever wondered what might happen if just one online criminal got his or her hands on some of your company’s most important data?

Sad but true, many businesses have had to deal with this issue, an issue that can end up dealing a terrible public relations and/or financial blow to companies everywhere.

With that fear in the back of your mind, how can your brand stay one step ahead of identity theft thieves online, allowing you and your business to operate safely on the web?

Careful What You Say

For starters, businesses need to make sure they are doing their best to not publicize pertinent company and/or client data.

Ways to go about this include:

  • Avoiding loose lips – As the old saying “Loose lips sink ships” reminds business owners, be careful that you’re not spreading too much information around, especially online, when it comes to your company. Identity thieves (hackers) have gotten smarter and smarter over the years when it comes to breaking through to company websites. As a result, they can do both public relations and ultimately financial damage to businesses in a heartbeat. If you have employees under you, make sure they know the ground rules when it comes to sharing client data (not outside the office or on the web), allowing you to lessen the chances of a hacker or hackers hitting you;
  • Hosting server and identity protection – For the provider you use for web hosting, be sure that they have pro-active security measures in place, thereby lessening opportunities for hackers to strike. The provider should review its security procedures on a regular basis, something you should definitely ask about when signing up with them, along with the service of your contract. If you’re looking for an identity theft protection provider, turn to an identity protection reviews website to sort through the good and the bad. A reviewer can look at all the significant factors that you the business owner would when comparing such providers. By having such a website do the review process for you, it allows you to be pointed in the direction of the best I.D. theft protection provider company;
  • Social miscues – Another way to keep hackers at bay is by not being irresponsible on social media. It is important that your team not be sharing pertinent company or client data online, especially on social networking sites. If one or more of your employees is conversing on Facebook or Twitter about personal company or client data, it just takes a hacker a short time to crack your system and gather up the information. Also be careful when dealing with job applicants. While the majority of them will be on the up-and-up, hackers can take the opportunity to send you a bogus social site, hoping you will click on a link. Once you’ve done that, your system can be exposed to malware, allowing a hacker the front door key to your company’s computer information;
  • Former employees – Even though many “former” employees part on relatively good terms with employers (found another job, layoff with severance pay and unemployment, there are countless others who do not depart on the best of terms. When this happens, the business could be in jeopardy of being attacked online, especially if someone has a beef with their former boss. Although you can threaten libel action against an individual you suspect of being up to no good once they have left your employ, an even better defense is making sure they do not have company secrets and/or client data in their possession when they walk out the door for the last time. Make sure you immediately change employee username/passwords to log-in to office computers. Remember, some of these former workers may have worked from home and/or had company computer log-in info with them when they traveled for company business. You should also monitor your social media pages to see if any thing seems amiss there after an employee or employees depart. While you can’t and shouldn’t monitor such things for weeks, months and even years later, knowing what to look for not long after workers leave your business will leave you in a pro-active, not reactive state of mind.

As a business owner, are your efforts to stop hackers working?

About the author

Dave Thomas writes for a variety of websites on topics such as human resources and running a small business.

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