Today’s business environment moves at a rapid pace with a growing reliance on technology, social media and the internet to manage costs and maintain market advantage. This brings with it emerging risks that could result in lost revenue, business down time and a host of unforeseen costs and legal liabilities.

According to a recent survey, 74% of small organisations experienced a security breach last year, with the average cost of a breach rising sharply from &75,000 in 2014 to &311,000 last year. The survey also found that nearly 9 in 10 large organisations now suffer some form of security breach – suggesting that these incidents are now a near certainty.

High-profile cyber attacks have been hitting the headlines with increasing frequency over the past year, putting security risks firmly in the spotlight. With celebrities, big businesses and small enterprises all coming under attack, it seems that no one is safe.

- The following are tips for small businesses to take to stave off cyber crime:
- Keep your operating systems updated and regularly patched
- Have a firewall plus software that opposes virus, spyware and phishing attacks
- Keep your browsers updated at all times with the latest version of the software
- Keep all system software updated
- Encrypt your wireless network
- Restrict software and set up administrative rights so that nothing can be installed on company computers without authorization
- Use filtering that controls access to data
- Block access to restricted sites with internet filters to prevent employees and hackers from uploading data to storage clouds
- Remove or disable USB ports so that malicious data can’t be downloaded
- Implement strict password policies
- Encrypt entire drives, folders and files

If businesses do nothing, assuming a ‘nothing can happen to us’ mentality, then it’s only a matter of time before a security hack. Security in any company of any size is ultimately everyone’s responsibility.