Your business network system may be a target right now and you don’t even know it.
Network hackers cost businesses more than $445 billion annually, all around the globe.
To prevent this increasingly pervasive threat from destroying everything you’ve struggled to build up over the years, you need to know how to detect a potential hack, how to protect yourself, and how to stop it from happening in the first place.
How to Detect a Potential Hack
Future hacks begin with delivery of the “weapon.”
In digital terms, the weapon may be a piece of software or a piece of code. This weapon needs to be embedded in your system, where it will either lie dormant until the date of attack, or it will immediately begin breaking down your system from the inside out.
The delivery of the weapon can come from various sources.
Often it will come via an innocent sounding email, through a third-party website, or through a software update.
Network attackers hide viruses and other hacks designed to gain sensitive information from your company in these “carriers,” in the hopes that someone in your organization will be naïve or careless enough to click on them and allow them to gain entry into your network.
Potential threats can be sometimes be identified with the following methods:
- Words are misspelled in emails, or sentence structure is “off,” indicating that the writer’s first language is not English. One runs its entire economic structure off of hacked U.S. sites. The cell is operated by indigenous Romanians who write emails designed to lure unsuspecting American workers to click on links and start the download of the virus.
- The email is an unexpected communication from a bank or other financial organization, such as asking the user to verify information out of the blue.
- The third party website looks similar to one your employee is used to seeing, such as UPS.com, but certain elements are missing, some words are misspelled, or is just looks “off” in general.
How to Protect Yourself from a Hack
As the following article looks at, to know how to detect an advanced attack in time to actually stop it, you need to know how to protect yourself ahead of time.
One of the best ways to protect yourself is to invest in a backup system for all your company’s data.
A backup system will allow you to instantly restore your uncorrupted files to your servers with little or no downtime. For a low monthly subscription fee, you can virtually free yourself from any possible hacks.
How to Stop Hacks From Happening in the First Place
Of course the best protection against hacks is prevention.
You can stop hacks from happening in the first place by putting in place some measures in your company.
Among them:
- Educate your employees
Give your employees either in-house or outside courses in how to detect hacks. Let them know what a potential hack looks like, and what to do if they suspect something.
- Hire an IT expert
It’s worth it to pay for an IT expert on your team. This person can install virus protectors and firewalls that will keep attacks at bay.
Your company network doesn’t have to be the next victim.
Implement these steps and help to make your network impervious to threats.
About the Author: Kate Supino writes extensively about best business practices.
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