Are you doing enough to prevent hackers from stealing your business's data? According to study conducted by Kaspersky, 46 percent of businesses have lost sensitive data from a cyber threat. Unfortunately, many of these businesses don't recover from major data breaches, and those that do suffer from a negative public image. There are ways to prevent hackers from stealing your business's data, though, including the five tips listed here.

1. 5 Tips to Prevent Hackers from Stealing Your Business's Data
Are you doing enough to prevent hackers from stealing your business's data? According to study
conducted by Kaspersky, 46 percent of businesses have lost sensitive data from a cyber threat.
Unfortunately, many of these businesses don't recover from major data breaches, and those that
do suffer from a negative public image. There are ways to prevent hackers from stealing your
business's data, though, including the five tips listed here.
#1) Identify Vulnerabilities:
You should first identify cyber vulnerabilities in your business's information technology (IT)
infrastructure. These are the weaknesses that leave your business vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Examples of cyber vulnerabilities include outdated software, weak passwords and the lack of a
cyber security policy.
#2) Train Employees:
Training employees on the signs of cyber vulnerabilities and how to mitigate the risk of a data
breach is another important tip to protect your data from theft. Phishing breaches, for instance,
often stem from an employee unknowingly downloading a malicious file attached to an email.
Once the employee downloads the file, the malware is deployed on his or her computer, after
which it spreads to other computers across the network. To protect your business from this and
other types of cyber-attacks, train employees on the warning signs of cyber vulnerabilities and
how to deal with them.

2. #3) Privacy by Design:
In the wake of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, privacy has become an increasingly
common concern among businesses. You can protect the privacy of your business and its clients
or customers, however, by implementing privacy by design. Pioneered by former Information
and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Ann Cavoukian, privacy by design is an engineering
framework in which privacy is taken into account through every stage of the design process.
Rather than waiting until the end of the design process to create feature or safeguards for privacy
protection, for example, you should add them at the beginning and optimize them thereafter.
#4) Partner With the Right Cyber security Professionals:
You aren't alone in your battle against hackers and data theft. There are cyber security firms that
specialize in this line of work. By partnering with the right cyber security team, you'll create a
stronger and more secure IT environment, thus lowering the risk of stolen data.
#5) Information Governance System:
Finally, consider using an information governance system in your business. This enterprise-level
framework consists of legal and regulatory guidelines regarding the use, storage and
transmission of data. It's a comprehensive guide outlining how your business should handle data.
Even with these tips, there's no way to completely protect your business's data from theft.
Hackers continue to develop new techniques and tools to infiltrate the most secure systems. The
good news is that you can significantly lower your risk of sustaining a data breach by following
these strategies.
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