Internet security is one of the biggest risks to UK business. Earlier this year, Carphone Warehouse was hacked to the tune of 2.4 million customer details- one of the biggest cyber attacks ever in the United Kingdom.
While these headline grabbing statistics make the news, attacks against small and medium businesses in the UK are actually increasingly common. 74% of SMEs reported a security breach in 2015, up 60% from 2014 (source: PwC).
In the ever increasingly connected world, business owners should constantly be updating their knowledge and security practices in order to remain ahead of the cyber criminals. For recruitment businesses, who live and die by the quality of their candidate and client data, security should be of paramount importance.
With that in mind, it is crucial for recruitment agencies to keep up with the latest developments in cyber security. Investing in security doesn’t always have to be expensive, but it could be critical to the longevity of your business. To this end we’ve got 5 tips for business owners to keep their databases secure and thus safeguard the security of their business
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Encrypting data
To the uninitiated, encryption is the difference between an http website, and an https website. It is often depicted using the green security notification in the address bar, which has become synonymous with trust and security on the internet. If we’re getting technical, one of the best encryptions you can use is a 256-bit encryption along with 2048-bit root certificates. Ignoring encryption could cripple any business if it was the subject of a hack.
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Redundancy failovers
This is essentially a fancy way of saying “a backup”. But redundancy protocols can be extremely complex. Daily and weekly dual site backups mean that the data is regularly replicated to protect against hardware failure and user errors. A raid system means that data is written to a minimum of two hard drives at the same time. This helps to further prevent against hardware failure.
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Strong passwords
A strong password is absolutely critical to good security. Every recruitment agency owner should insist on consultants using unique, complex passwords (i.e. not the password for their Facebook account). The problem that we hear constantly is that complex passwords are difficult to remember. Well, we’ve come up with a little formula that might help to improve your password security. Watch the video below for more information.
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Modern browsers
A lot security issues from yester-year have been fixed, primarily with browser patches and updates. If you use a modern browser like Chrome or Firefox, and allow updates as a matter of course, then you are already updating your internet security without realising it. If you’re using a browser that hasn’t been updated in 12 months or more, you should update your browser immediately.
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Spyware/ Antivirus software
There are various pieces of spyware out there that can provide an excellent level of security for organisations. While there is a lot of choice on the market, perhaps the most important element to the software is that it is updated regularly. This can help to constantly guard against new viruses and threats.