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3 Ways to Secure Your Business (and Save Money)

Safety first. Making safety and security a priority in any business is of the utmost importance. Discouraging theft, keeping businesses safe, and preventing internal loss are all important aspects of securing a company and saving money in bargain. Whatever costs are associated with setting up a controlled security system for both a company’s physical assets and cyber data are more than recouped by maintaining secure premises online and off. From customer loss to the destruction of valuable data, a company that has not secured itself is at great risk.

Business Security

Here are three ways to secure a business and save money in the process.

1. Video surveillance

Video surveillance allows you to view what’s happening inside and outside your business via your computer or phone, from any location in which an internet connection can be established. As a deterrent to vandalism or theft, having such a system in place is a solid plan of action. However, video surveillance can accomplish more than that.

Video surveillance is also helpful in monitoring employee performance, and making sure that operations are proceeding at a productive rate, even if you’re out of town on a business trip. Ensuring operational efficiency is one useful tool of surveillance, another is to assure that employees are following compliance standards regarding sanitation and safety.

Using video footage is also useful in assessing who can access secure rooms, a company vault, or data rooms. That type of knowledge assists with loss prevention, serving as a powerful deterrent to any inside thefts. Not all thefts come from outside: and video cameras strategically placed will both help in the prevention of employee-instigated loss and discourage shoplifting in a retail environment.

2. Online security

Protecting a business from online hackers is a must-do for businesses these days. To keep hackers away, it’s important to change account names and default passwords often, and be sure to update computer operating systems. An older system may not be protected from viruses. The cost of a new computer system is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of lost data and the lost trust of customers or clients. In regard to passwords, choose complex passwords and set up a limit for using them at ninety days. Avoid simple passwords, and update whatever passwords are created every quarter. No matter how good a password may be, it has a shelf life where the potential for hacking is concerned.

Automatic updates should be activated, to be sure security patches are up to date, and anti-virus software is current. Be sure that security software covers spam blocking and will also detect spyware. Purchase the most modern protection to provide firewalls, block malware, filter spam, and block phishing. There’s so much more to guard against today than just viruses. Be sure your security software includes intrusion detection.

Businesses should strive not just to protect their own work, but to protect customer financial information as well. Sensitive encryption software is simply a smart move to protect customers credit and personal information. Small businesses may do best by relying on outside payment processing options like PayPal or Google Wallet.

Naturally, encryption doesn’t just benefit customers – it also benefits the company itself, protecting personnel files, product knowledge, financial records and the like. With such software in place, even if a hacker breaches a company’s security system online, they will not be able to interpret the data that is accessed.

Having a secure back-up plans is another way to keep a business secure. Why is this important? This integral aspect of any IT plan will assist businesses with everything from accidentally deleting files to cyber black mail or natural calamities that destroy computer systems.

In this era of cyber criminals making data ransom demands and deleting files, a backup system means that an affected business can replace data just about immediately by using the back up system. Back up data should be stored securely away from the principal business location to protect data from both cyber threats and physical destruction.

3. Making security a part of company culture

One of the best ways to secure a business is to make sure that everyone working at a company has a part in that security initiative. Remind managers and employees that the company’s future and theirs depends on being vigilant with password storage and taking internet security seriously. According to a study conducted in 2013, 43% of all hacked networks utilized information from inside the company.

The overall security approach should be to take no risks. Collected data from customers is every bit as valuable as data on the company itself, and even more important than many physical assets. Without data, a business can be destroyed. Without providing secure storage for customer information, a business can be derided and abandoned. Without secure data management protocols in place, it can be difficult to seek investors, sell a business, or obtain additional capital. That’s how important others view data security. Protecting data means protecting a company’s future.

What are the best ways to do just that? Using a data-driven approach for security management is key. Businesses are well served by utilizing a network which interacts with or receives inputs from a physical system. Using historical data from computer systems and analyzing human behaviors within the company is a strong and proactive way to detect any anomalies and perceive the potential for cyber threats before they happen.

Achieving the highest possible level of network analysis allows the most dynamic control of a cyber system.

Overall, using video surveillance to monitor a business inside and out, providing current and top-of-the-line security systems in cyber space, and inculcating employees with the importance of data security and general company security, are three solid steps toward creating a secured business.

With both physical and cyber assets protected, a business will save money by avoiding the potential for significant lost time, customer loss, and recovering assets. Investing in company security means a solid investment for any business’s future.

Are you looking to install rolling security gates for your business? Call us at 718-614-0616 or e-mail info@nygates.com for more information. You can also view all our services located here.

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