SMB Holiday Security Tips

This holiday season thousands of shoppers will trust companies across the country with their credit and debit card information. But with the holiday cheer, shouldn’t come fear. Though cyber-attacks against businesses spike near the holidays, you can help your readers learn how to protect their small business. Why? Because….

Thirty-seven percent of respondents to the 2014 Symantec Small Business Holiday Survey report that customers have expressed concern about the security of their personal data.

Twenty-eight percent of small businesses plan to provide security training to all employees this holiday season.

According to Symantec’s 2014 Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), more than 400 million identities were exposed through data breaches from October through December last year – which is more than double the 149 million exposed in the other nine months combined.

Symantec, a global leader in protecting small business security, recommends small businesses do the following:

Remove sensitive data from your network: SMBs will often store sensitive data that isn’t frequently accessed on a computer that either is not or only intermittently connected to the network. Removing this data from the network will help greatly reduce security risks.

Talk to third-party vendors and employees: Most SMBs rely on third-party vendors for help with a business need, like accounting or security, and these third-party vendors often have access to sensitive customer information. Small business owners should ask their vendors about how they are protecting corporate information and look for ways to limit unnecessary vendor access to sensitive data. Additionally, small businesses should train their employees on security best practices, like setting up strong passwords, backing up data and identifying phishing emails.

Multi-layered security: Today’s advanced threats call for multi-layered protection. SMBs should protect its data during prime holiday buying times, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with a security suite that goes beyond basic anti-virus, like Norton Small Business or Symantec Endpoint Protection.

Keep your OS updated: The holidays are a perfect time to update security software and operating systems. This will protect against recently discovered vulnerabilities, as well as the increased likelihood of attack that comes with the holiday shopping season. Norton Small Business updates systems automatically, as well as tracks and flags devices that are running older software versions