Technology is at the forefront of nearly every business. From marketing to employee management, your technology is collecting important information with every move. If this information was seized, your business has an IT disaster.
What Cybercrime Costs the Economy
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, cybercrime costs the economy about $445 billion each year. Technology can be used to protect financial data, confidential executive decisions, and other proprietary information that leads to competitive advantages.
Simply put, technology helps businesses everywhere keep their ideas away from competitors. Unfortunately, cyber hackers have emerged with the goal of intentionally exploiting weaknesses in an organization’s computer systems to gather their confidential information.
Who Causes Security Breaches?
As an SMB company, you may be considering moving to the cloud or implementing a bring your device mobile program. No matter what industry your business is in – security must be prioritized. 95 percent of breaches are caused by employees. Human error can lead to this, as well as using insecure mobile devices for work purposes.
Systems You Need to Update
A majority of cyber attacks are caused by software installed on your systems. Businesses can dramatically reduce the risk of such attacks by installing and updating antivirus software. In particular, the latter part is crucial since new viruses are developed and sold online every day. If your antivirus software is not kept up to date, it might cause your business to suffer.
Without regular software updates, your system will quickly become outdated, making you vulnerable to attacks. Some of the key systems you need to update regularly are:
- Operating Systems: Each of your computers has operating systems. Windows actually releases new official updates for its operating systems each month.
- Anti-Malware Program: Malware is constantly evolving, so you will need to update these programs more frequently.
- Anti-Virus Program: A virus is a computer program that takes advantage of a vulnerability to install or run malware. A virus installs and runs harmful programs on your computer. By installing this software, you can prevent information theft.
- Firewall Firmware: Your firewall inspects data that’s coming in and out of the computer. Keeping this software up-to-date is crucial so that it will alert and block information from passing through your computer.
- Third-Party Applications: Third-party applications are programs that work on your operating system but are created by a different manufacturer. For example, this would be similar to downloading Google Chrome onto your MacBook computer.
What Now?
Our mission is to create a turn-key solution that fits your unique needs, by becoming your virtual IT department. Prospera can serve as your company’s security guard to ensure all systems are operating correctly. Get started with a trusted technology partner. Learn more here.