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Many businesses suffer from fraud that affects them, their employees, or their customers. However, you’re not powerless against this crime. Apply these five security measures to protect your enterprise against fraud.
Extensive Password Protection
Though it’s easy to imagine a malicious hacker somewhere off-site who has devoted hours to finally beating your security, the truth is that stealing information from a business and committing fraud isn’t too difficult for criminals who know what they’re doing. This is largely because many companies don’t put nearly enough effort into password protection.
Use password protection for as many programs as possible. Set standards to guarantee the creation of strong passwords, such as using special characters and numbers, and have all workers change their passwords periodically.
Secure Your Payment Methods
Any method you use to accept money from customers must be secure. For businesses that use PayPal and take credit card or bank information online, this means maintaining SSL encryption for all web pages. SSL encryption will also help your pages rank well on search engines.
Brick-and-mortar stores must watch for fraud that occurs at the register as well. If you take paper checks, for example, invest in secure checks to guard against check fraud. For shops that use credit card readers or services like Square, check for upgrades and ensure your software is updated.
Limit Access to Certain Files
Only people who need access to sensitive physical and electronic files should be able to see those files. If your files aren’t secure, it’s easy for employees to unknowingly compromise that data or, in the case of online files, to access your network with an unsecured device and put sensitive information at risk.
For businesses that allow workers to use their own phones or laptops at work, it’s vital to have a secure network. You should also institute rules about adding software to your system and downloading company information onto personal devices.
Update
All those reminders to update your operating system can be annoying, but they’re popping up for a reason. Software companies often issue updates specifically to fix vulnerabilities in their programs. Again, if you have employees who use company devices or their own gadgets on your network, those systems must be up to date. Anyone who fails to keep their software current could expose your system and open the door for financial fraud.
Institute Security Procedures
Your company needs an official policy that outlines your security procedures and all measures that employees must follow. If your workers have electronic devices, you must outline how they’re to be used at work. Provide standards for keeping anti-virus software up-to-date and rules for updating the operating system. Hold meetings periodically to go over your policy. You can also use this time to check that everyone’s devices are up-to-date and address any new trends in business security that you need to integrate.
Whether you’re a business owner, a startup hopeful, or a tech enthusiast, hopefully this guide has helped reiterate how important online security is. Apply these measures to mitigate your risk of fraud online and offline.
