Help Protect Your Business from a Data Breach

A data breach is every business owner’s worst nightmare. It can interfere with operations, harm your reputation with customers and have a significant financial impact on your business. IBM Security’s 2020 Cost of Data Breach Study found that the average total cost of a data breach is $3.86 million. Here are some tips to help protect your business:

Develop cybersecurity policies. The basics may include multilayered endpoint security, network security, encryption and strong authentication technologies. Look into the cybersecurity policies of your vendors to help ensure they don’t expose you to unnecessary risk. You may want to hire a reputable cybersecurity firm to review your potential vulnerabilities and/or manage your cybersecurity if you don’t have sufficient internal resources.  

Train employees and enforce strict internal controls. Create policies for strong password creation as well as email and social media usage. Ensure employees are aware of the policies and the consequences of failing to adhere to them.

Use caution when collecting and storing data. The more sensitive information you keep, the greater the risk to you and your customers if a breach occurs. Encrypt the information you must keep and restrict access to only those who need it.

Monitor, monitor, monitor. Although your current procedures may be effective, hackers come up with new and ingenious ways to attack data every day. Your business should constantly monitor cybersecurity using automated and manual checks and react immediately should a threat be suspected or detected.

Create a response protocol. Your technology team, along with input from other departments such as human resources, marketing, corporate communications, legal and management, should have a policy in place for reacting to cyberthreats. This includes stopping them, correcting internal policies and communicating with the public when necessary.

Use the latest technology. Invest in security technology to prevent unauthorized access to company and customer data. Safeguard your operating systems with software updates to prevent malware, ransomware and spyware attacks. Review your technology and security needs for credit card terminals and contactless payment options.

Purchase cyber liability insurance. Talk to your risk management and information technology teams about the impact of potential breaches to determine the type of coverage your organization may need. This may include coverage for the costs associated with a breach, the expense of updating or replacing business assets, business interruption, liability and/or cyber extortion or cyber terrorism. 

Strengthen Your Cybersecurity

Although there are no guarantees, taking commonsense measures can help protect your business from a cyberattack. Amegy Bank takes cybersecurity seriously and has robust measures in place to help protect your accounts and personal information. Learn more about fraud protection tools and help protect your business from a security crisis.