4 Tech Skills That Can Protect Your Business From Hackers

The threat of hacking is something that every modern business must face, irrespective of how many customers it serves or the industry it occupies.

Because of this it is vital for decision-makers to embrace the need for suitably robust cyber security solutions.

Even if you are not an expert in hacking prevention, there are some important skills offered by specialists in this field that are worth procuring. Here are just a few of the top anti-hacking measures to adopt.

Penetration Testing

This is arguably the most impactful skill to covet if you want to protect your business from the dark forces that seek to relieve it of its precious, private data.

Penetration testing describes the act of using genuine hacking processes to see whether it is possible to breach your current security measures and enact an attack successfully. This can be carried out both remotely and on-site, with qualified testers homing in on vulnerabilities and letting you know about them before a real hacker comes sniffing around.

If you want more information on the varied skills and services associated with penetration testing check out this page from a UK based company, Fidus Information Security. You will quickly come to appreciate what is involved, as well as what is at stake if you get complacent.

Cloud Computing

Smaller businesses may struggle to allocate appropriate resources to tackling cyber security flaws, especially if they exist in systems running on-premises.

Thankfully in an age of superfast connectivity and affordable storage, it is easy to outsource the hosting of your IT solutions to a third party provider and jump on the cloud computing bandwagon.

The cloud offers endless opportunities for flexibility, scalability and innovation. You can backup and restore critical data with ease, run apps to free up in-house hardware and deliver on-the-go access to useful services so that employees can work remotely without having to keep sensitive information on portable devices which are easily lost.

With cloud spending set to double in the next couple of years, it is clear that many businesses are already well aware of its benefits. The sooner you act to adopt, the quicker your security issues will dissipate.

Password Choice

It may not seem like it, but there is a real skill in choosing a secure password. Unfortunately this is something that millions of people lack, creating one of the biggest vulnerabilities in the digital ecosystem.

Password protection is applied across almost every account type, from business services to social networks and shopping sites. But if a hacker can easily guess a common password, then any additional security measures will be rendered redundant.

If you run a commercial organisation, it makes sense to insist that secure password selection habits are embraced by all employees. This can be achieved proactively by setting parameters which a prospective password must meet in order to qualify.

Randomness and length are the two lynchpins of a good password, but another factor that no organisation should ignore is the need to ensure that they are changed regularly. Old passwords which linger on for longer than necessary might become vulnerable if they are used elsewhere and a breach occurs which puts them out in the open.

Familiarity with Phishing

Businesses and individuals alike can be successfully hacked if they fall for a phishing scam. Dodgy emails and disingenuous websites dressed up to look legitimate are both widely used by crooks to trick innocent web users.

Knowing what to look for in a phishing campaign can help prevent disasters. Look out for poor spelling, requests for private info, unsolicited offers that are too good to be true and web addresses that do not correlate with official sites.