Cyberattacks result in many bad things, including from data deletion, data theft, data ransom, and even complete downtime.

According to a report back in 2016, Cybercrime damage costs are projected to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. It’s imperative for businesses to lower their risk of these attacks from happening in the first place.

Here’s 4 tips on how to do just that.

1. Keep everything up-to-date

Most modern cyberthreats don’t necessarily have to “brute force” attack their way through your network. Instead, they seek out the weakest point of entry to slip in. In practice, that’s your software and hardware that you’ve been neglecting to update.

Luckily, the people that manage your products are well aware of the current cybersecurity landscape.

There’s almost always a patch to cover up these vulnerabilities quickly. Therefore, simply keeping your IT updated can be enough to thwart would-be attacks.

2. Get the right software and hardware

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of devices and programs on the market. Choosing equipment with the right security features can make a huge difference in whether you’re actually protected or not.

For example, many small-business owners neglect to choose a router that meets their businesses needs. Home-grade networking equipment often lacks the security features that business-grade equipment has.

Another example? Antivirus. Home-grade antivirus simply isn’t complex enough to catch advanced threats, such as next-gen malware and viruses. On the other hand, business-grade antivirus solutions are much more thorough with their hunt for network infections.

3. Focus on employee knowledge

The simplest and most common ways for cyberattacks to enter your network is through your employees. To the untrained eye, a phishing email or infected attachment seems completely legitimate.

But even single click can quickly turn from minor nuisance to major issues.

To diminish the chances of these kind of attacks, your must actively train employees on cybersecurity best practices. Keeping them informed on the latest cybersecurity news is critical, too.

Start by establishing regular meetings. They don’t have to be too frequent – once every few months is plenty. These meetings should go over the latest threats (what they look like and how to defend against them). It’s also important to couple training with exceptional email security.

4. Pick better passwords

Cybercriminals know that most people are lazy when it comes to passwords. It’s really hard not to be – people have dozens upon dozens of accounts that each require their own password.

As tempting as it may be to use the same password for everything, consider doing otherwise. If a cybercriminal were to discover the password for one of your accounts, they could access all of your other accounts.

Did you know? For the fourth consecutive year, “123456” and “password” topped the list of leaked passwords.

Setting a password with both capital and lowercase letters, as well as a healthy dose of numbers, letters, and special signals, is the way to go. Here’s a helpful tip, too – if you’re no good at remembering these passwords, consider using a secure password manager to securely manage them for you, such as LastPass.

If you don’t want to do it alone, we’re here to help! Our managed security services offer continuous oversight, 24/7/365. Attempting to handle your critical security needs yourself requires a large investment in money, manpower and security expertise. Give us a call.