By Nikhil Arora, MD & VP, India, GoDaddy
Breaches in a digital system may lead to loss of assets, theft of information and potentially access to data. GoDaddy’sWebsite Security Survey – 2021 of small businesses revealed that 76% of respondents considered cybersecurity to be very important, especially when it comes to protecting customer data. According to a recent Microsoft survey, around seven out of ten Indian consumers have experienced fraud involving tech support, and a staggering 31% of Indians who were victims of cyberattacks lost money, making it all the more necessary for small businesses to safeguard their customers from cyber-attacks.
Furthermore, a loss of time and a decrease in customer confidence were the two biggest fears entrepreneurs mentioned in a potential security breach, with phishing and malware being perceived as the main threats to small businesses. Putting measures and tools in place to help safeguard information can be crucial to avoid or minimize potential attacks:
1. Having an SSL certificate for your website: This digital certificate authenticates a website’s identity, and is essentialto convey trust to online visitors. An SSL-protected page will show a padlock icon next to the URL in the address bar that demonstrates the website is further protected. To help small business owners, GoDaddy now includes a free one-year SSL certificate and AutoSSL in its Economy web hosting plan.
2. Ensuring website backups: In the event of a cyberattack,maintaining a backup copy of the business’s information is crucial to help restore a website and its contents. Retaining this data stored elsewhere allows for the website to reestablish back to the date of the last backup. This also allows small businesses to compare and evaluate any data breaches that may have occurred.
3. Avoiding public Wi-Fi networks: Open public networks do not have secure encryptions or passwords, making them an ideal hotspot for hackers to hijack the user’s personal information and steal assets like private documents, photos, login credentials, and much more. It is important to use a secure wireless connection and have the proper network security measures to protect sensitive information.
4. Establishing a secure password: Cybercriminals can figure out a password in just seconds, so it is critical to create strong passwords, keep them updated, store them in a secure place by considering using a password management tool. A secure password should be between 12 and 15 characters long, combining letters, numbers, and symbols randomly, and alternating upper and lowercase letters.
5. Modifying the router password: For a small company, Internet access is an indispensable part of doing business. Changing the manufacturer’s pre-assigned passwords is an effective way to create additional safety and security for the user’s network.
