Three Infrastructure tools to protect your business. Here are three infrastructure tools that you should consider to protect your business. Uninterruptible power supplies In the event of a power outage, will you lose data access? UPS systems are available to help keep your businessoperational in the event of a power outage. These solutions can run from very simple systems, to enormous batterysupported systems that can keep very large hospitals operational. An MSP is an excellent resource for evaluating a UPSsolution appropriate to your situation Software as a Service SaaS. SaaS is something we use quite a bit and may not even recognize. If you started your business 15-20 years ago, you mayremember buying a business license for office products that included a word package, spreadsheet and presentationsoftware. The license allowed you to download that software to x number of machines. Problem? The software itself, aswell as the documents produced, exist on that particular machine . The m...

Two quick ways to protect your data Looking for a few ways to quickly protect your data and IT infrastructure from cybercriminals? Here are two greatplaces to start. The first is so obvious that almost everyone overlooks it, especially in smaller companies wherethere is little time for proactive training on any topic. Employee Training If you’re looking for the quickest tool to protect your digital assets from cyber criminals, adopt a plan for ongoing,long-term employee training. Of all the tricks criminals use to attack and steal your customer and business data,phishing scams are still one of the most successful. Most common are the emails that contain links that lead to fakewebsites. Similar schemes simply send a link that, when used, downloads malware to the employee’s computer and suddenlycriminals have access to your data. Other common email tricks that people STILL fall for request personal data that canbe used for identity theft. Training your employees to recognize potential sc...

Your Board should be helping you look out for the future Like most small business owners, unless you hit the lottery and started capitalizing your business all by yourself, youprobably have some key shareholders who serve on your Board of Directors. You may also be finding that they areincreasingly concerned about strategies to assess risk management. Most small businesses tend to overlook riskmanagement issues—they usually just don’t have the time. Every minute is spent building the businesses and making sales.Operations and sales consume 120 percent of a small business owner’s time. In this e-guide, we’ll do a quick run-throughof some topics that you may wish to address with your board as you collaborate to protect your business from cybercrime,as well as other negative events. Developing strategies to protect a business in the event of an untoward or bad incident is nothing new. It just isn’tcommon among small businesses. However, with the increase in cybercrime, as well as high pro...

Two places where you need risk management planning If you started your small business with an inheritance, great news! Congratulations. But most likely you have a board ofdirectors; initial investors whose focus is on the long term success of the company, on strategies for future growth andprotection of their investment. Part of their concern will be threats and risks to the present business. Here are twofinal topics that you, and they should be focussing on when making strategic risk management plans. Brand damage and reputational loss. If your company is the victim of a cyberattack, you will need to inform any customer whose data may have beencompromised. This will definitely not endear you to your clients. If word gets out, this can damage your ability toattract and convert new prospects into customers. This issue of brand damage could likely be the most severe, long-termrisk to the success of the business.Adding to this is the competitive disadvantage it places you in. Competing fi...

Is your Board addressing these two issues? We’ve been talking about how your Board and shareholders have a vested interest in understanding and overseeing how yourcompany will defend itself against the effects of cybercrime. Here are two more areas where you will need to have plansand your board should be focussed on how they will be handled Data Loss Unless their goal is pure mischief, most cyber thieves are seeking data that can be monetized in some fashion. Customerdata is a rich trove of data, providing thieves with the information to steal identities or hack bank accounts andcredit cards. Only, they don’t just want your customers' data. Your business has its own proprietary and financialinformation. You have company credit cards and bank accounts. Legal Should you suffer a significant loss of customer data, you may be subject to legal regulations. At the very least, youare likely required to notify the victims and the state or legal entity that regulates data loss in your juri...

Your Board and risk management For small business owners, it may seem your daily energy is caught up with just keeping the doors open and revenuescoming in. However, unless you were very fortunate when you started up, you have a board of directors; most likelyinitial investors whose focus is on the long term success of the company and on strategies for future growth. Part oftheir concern will be threats and risks to the present business. A particular concern may be the risks to the businessin the case of a cyber attack. Small businesses are just as vulnerable to cyber attacks as large companies. However,they are far less likely to have the resources to recover. In our next few blogs, we are going to look at what ways a small firm may be vulnerable to a cyber attack. Inparticular, we discuss the major areas of vulnerability your business faces.Specific topics include customer and companydata loss, legal implications, fines and regulatory penalties, brand damage, downtime and revenue los...

Social media: it gets stale fast. Be careful. It is time to understand the importance of social media and your responsibility to maintain your presence on whateversites you select. Social media is ultimately special because of its interactive nature. Your clients and prospects canpost questions, observations, remarks (both good and bad). Because of this, it is important that you consistentlymonitor your page. If they ask questions, they want answers. If you had a storefront and a customer walked in, youwouldn't ignore them would you? Same for social media. Also, each question they ask is not only an opportunity to helpthem understand how your product or service meets their needs, it is an opportunity to understand features and optionsthat you presently may be overlooking. That can help expand and grow your business and open new target markets. And that takes us to the part about social media marketing that makes some people a little uneasy. It is not justquestions about features an...