With cyberattacks on the rise, online security has never been more important for individuals and small businesses alike. If you have a website and accept payments online, then keeping your information safe from criminals is essential. Your small business can suffer a great deal from data breaches and attacks, with many start-ups being forced to stop trading after they’ve been hacked. Larger companies can often weather the storm, but you should always do everything you can to keep your small business safe.
Criminals are often out to steal your customer data, which can cause your loyal audience to quickly lose any trust they had for you. But hackers may also steal your business’ information, leading them to commit identity fraud. Here are some ways you can keep criminals out.
Secure Payments
This is one of the most common ways that hackers steal your customers’ card details. If your payment portal isn’t secure, criminals that are lying in wait can quickly snatch customer information. There are many ways that you can ensure that customer payments are secure, but one of the most popular is partnering with a company that specializes in online payments. They can help you to set up a secure portal that your customers will feel confident using. Moreover, you can now evade all the credit card processing fees with the help of a particular kind of cash discount program. Think about how much money you will save on your everyday credit card transactions. Interested in saving money on your credit card transactions? Find more information at this link.
Strong Passwords
To edit the information on your website you probably have to enter a password. If this password is too simple then criminals will be able to easily override this and get access to your sensitive data. Many people choose passwords that are easy to remember or reuse the same password for all their accounts. Both of these actions leave your accounts vulnerable, as if one of these becomes compromised, criminals will be able to access everything, including your books, payroll and bank account.
Using a password manager can be helpful for anyone who struggles to remember their passwords. Some programmes can even generate strong passwords for you that are hard to crack. The software will be protected by one master password that you’ll need to remember, but it will keep all your others safe.
Have a Backup
Sometimes hackers can get through your defences and erase your data. Should this happen you don’t want to be in a situation where you have to start from scratch. Make sure you have a backup for your website, customer information and any other data you can’t afford to lose. If this is kept in the cloud and is protected with encryption and a strong password, you won’t have anything to worry about.
CAPTCHA
You’ve probably seen CAPTCHA technology all over the internet. It often comes in the form of a little tick box that proves you’re not a robot. This can help you to identify real customers from automated programmes that may be crawling your website. You don’t have to implement CAPTCHA at every turn, but it’s helpful to have it before customers submit forms or arrive at checkout. This can help you to prevent any spam from clogging up your site and slowing it down.
