With a myriad of businesses establishing their online services during the pandemic, many of them experienced a challenging journey to learn how to safeguard themselves, their clients, and their products online.
Cybersecurity has been the talk of the town amid the increasing presence of hackers, phishers, and other cybercriminals. For a successful business to grow online, one can’t undermine the importance of cybersecurity. The world is quickly moving entirely into the digital realm and Australia is not far behind as well. Now, it’s hard to imagine a life without the internet, especially for businesses, whose lack of online presence can literally kill them.
With our growing dependence on the internet, it’s equally important to give cybersecurity due importance. For that matter, the most convenient way to secure your online presence is by using a VPN. Cybersecurity experts have lined up top recommendations for the best Australian VPN service that is worth having a look at.
So, whether it’s your e-commerce store, your online banking transactions, or web-based products and services, you can use premium VPN solutions for your business. Moreover, if your usage is limited and you’re more into online streaming, you can even use a free VPN service to access geo-restricted content and avoid ISP throttling.
Having said that, let’s discuss some tips from experts to keep your online business in Australia anchored against malicious hacking attempts and other cybercrimes.
Table Of Contents
What Are the Potential Cybersecurity Risks?
The cybersecurity risks involved with businesses are high. Not only from a financial perspective but also for the overall reputation and image of a business as Australian law has made it mandatory for businesses to declare it to authorities if they have been subjected to online hacking and other cybercrimes.
Understandably, informing customers that their sensitive information and personal data might have been accessed by hackers can be disastrous, and regaining trust is extremely difficult.
Owners of several small businesses don’t even know where to begin with shielding themselves and presume that they require a big budget for their cybersecurity. In fact, safety doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated, and it can be implemented through various methods.
Some important statistics:
- Cybercrimes make businesses lose $300 million every year in Australia
- Around 90% of cybersecurity infringements harm small businesses
- 62% of small and medium businesses in Australia have encountered a cybersecurity breach
Use a VPN System Whenever Possible
If we talk about online data encryption, security, and privacy, you should always ensure encrypted access to the internet whenever possible. The easiest and most convenient way to get your connections encrypted is by using a premium VPN service. This makes your Internet traffic sent around through different IP addresses, making it really difficult to access and decipher the encrypted data and other online activities. You can easily keep your business dealings and client information obscure from prying eyes.
Not just that, encrypted internet connections are also a great method for accessing geo-restricted content in Australia. For instance, you can stream Hulu and access Netflix US in Australia with a VPN app.
Never Use the Same Password Again
This is probably one of the basic tips for anyone for their online security, not just business owners. If you have more than one account, service, or product, which is normal in this modern age of the internet, you need to ensure that you aren’t using the same passwords again.
Hackers can easily breach such accounts where users are reusing the same set of passwords over and over again. The right to go about it is setting a unique and strong password. The more complex password means that hackers have to try really hard to break the SSL encryption level.
As per the study conducted by the Harris Poll, 66% of respondents said that they reuse the same password for different accounts. That means sharing login details of one account with multiple people could land several accounts into hot waters; as is the case with thousands of users of Disney Plus.
It’s pertinent to mention that remembering so many passwords can be difficult. That’s why users tend to write and save them on their smartphone or PC. However, to be on the safer side, you must use a password manager that’ll take care of your passwords for different accounts.
Install Permanent Data Erasing Software
Sensitive documents processed in day-to-day business operations are many and manifold. So, to avoid these documents getting into the wrong hands, you must ensure that you’re leaving no trace behind once you’re done with a particular task.
When we talk about deleting files from your systems, simply moving them to the recycle bin isn’t always enough. That’s why we recommend using a digital shredder. These intelligent apps and programs are designed to permanently delete files beyond your system’s recycle bin leaving almost no trace.
It’s Better to Have an Antivirus Than Having None
There’s no doubt that some antivirus systems are pretty mediocre. However, having no protection against malware and viruses is not better than installing an ordinary antivirus system. You should always look for better, premium protection software, but if you can’t afford one, make sure you have at least some kind of protection available to safeguard your systems against malicious files.
Conclusion
The digital world is a blessing, however, roaming around the world of the internet isn’t as safe as it seems. Cybersecurity has become a hot topic in the technology world as well as in Australia. With a massive rise in cybercrimes during the past couple of years, you must take your personal and business online security seriously.
We hope, by following our tips, you can enhance your business data security and keep your sensitive information and user data from reaching cybercriminals.