Many companies do not realize how big the threat of cybercrime is to their business. By some estimates, the costs of this kind of crime should reach $6 trillion a year by 2021. From finding better endpoint security solutions to using more common sense, there are things companies can do to increase their cybersecurity plans and keep their systems more secure.

1. Make sure people are careful about what emails they open. This can come from Cybersecurity 101 but it is important enough to mention. There are a lot of fishing and spam email out there that looks legitimate. By this point, most people know that the email from the Nigerian royal family is not one that should be opened. The problem is that people still open attachments from unreliable sources and addresses they do not know. You have to impress upon your staff how critical it is to not do that. There are also cybersecurity companies that can provide software to scan email before a person opens it to make sure what they open does not have malware or ransomware embedded in it.
2. Be careful with your passwords. This is the second biggest ways computers and computer systems are hacked. It has been estimated that more than 73% of all people use the same password for a number of applications and accounts. There are applications that can help with password management but you should encourage people to use stronger passwords (they should contain upper and lowercase letters, special characters, and numbers) and to change them every 90 days. This is hard to enforce but is something people should be asked to do.
3. Not everyone in your company needs access to everything. For example, if you have a human resources department, you would not let every member of your staff to access sensitive data that is in people’s personnel files. By the same token, only the people who need to have access to sensitive data should have that access.
4. Take advantage of protections you can get from a good cybersecurity company. If you use the cloud, as more and more companies are, you should invest in a package to both secure your data and back it up. There are systems you can use to secure and back up the data that is on the cloud but you need to take your cybersecurity efforts a step further and store them in more than one location. There are a few ways you can store and secure your data. Having it in two physical locations will make it harder for you to fall victim to people who use ransomware to hold data hostage.
5. Make sure your data is encrypted. This is another one of the basics of cybersecurity. When you choose your cloud computing company, it is important that you go with one that offers encryption services for the data you store there. Make sure the system they use keeps your data encrypted while it is on the cloud. You should have a system that requires data undergo a decryption process when it is accessed. This is essential if you are using the cloud for any of your business.
6. Never take your eye off of the cybersecurity ball. After you have set everything up on an encrypted cloud service, your employees have been told to use secure passwords and be careful about whatever emails they look at and attachments they open, and you have the best system for who can access what, your job keeping your data safe is not done. People are out there who are doing nothing but look for vulnerabilities in business’s data systems. The solutions that work today may not work tomorrow and you need to be diligent in keeping an eye out for new things that you need to do to keep your network and your data safe from hackers.

There are a lot of reasons companies are switching to using the cloud for their computing needs. It has been estimated that more than 90% of businesses are at least considering making the switch. More and more government agencies are also making this switch. Taking steps to secure your network and data is critical for your business’s bottom line.