Information about your customers is vital, but what’s even more important is protecting that data at all costs. This is particularly true in a time where security incidents are growing for both small and enterprise businesses alike.
According to data collated by Wikipedia, it is estimated that the average cost of a data breach will be over $150 million by 2020, with the global annual cost forecast to be $2.1 trillion.
It is also estimated that in the first half of 2018 alone, about 4.5 billion records were exposed as a result of data breaches. In 2019, a collection of 2.7 billion identity records - consisting of 774 million unique email addresses and 21 million unique passwords - were posted on the web for sale.
Unfortunately, many small businesses are simply not well prepared for the techniques that today’s hackers use to extract data from their systems - and, on most occasions, don’t even consider that it could possibly happen to them.
In this blog, we explore five ways your company can improve its digital security strategy as explored in an article from the New York Times, as well as taking a look at some new security tools HubSpot has launched to keep your organization’s data safe.
STEPS TO IMPROVE DIGITAL PRIVACY
1 - Secure your accounts
Data breaches have increased significantly in recent years, affecting companies such as Equifax, Facebook, Home Depot, Marriott, Target, Yahoo, and countless others. Therefore it’s incredibly important you secure your company’s accounts from the threat of data leaks.
You can do this by using a password manager (such as LastPass or 1Password) to generate and remember different, complex passwords for each of your company’s accounts. The passwords for your accounts should be changed at least every couple of weeks.
Two-step authentication is also incredibly important, and we will explain how HubSpot is introducing that as a security option for its customers later in this blog.
2 - Enable encryption on office computers and especially any laptops that can be taken home
Whether someone steals an office computer or one of your employees loses their work laptop, a thief that is intelligent enough to realize it, will find they are sitting on a goldmine of data collected by your company.
However, by encrypting the storage drive on your computer/laptop you will ensure that a thief cannot access data without a password or security key. The data simply becomes nonsense without the password or key.
Encryption is easier to set up than you might think, and is actually free to enable with built-in software. Whether you have Windows or Mac, the New York Times has put together some directions on how to set up encryption.
3 - Use antivirus software
The word virus often makes you think back to the early 2000s when commercial computers were fairly new and no real security software had been created yet. That, however, doesn’t mean there aren’t viruses today.
In fact, malicious software on your company’s computer can result in serious data breaches if left unresolved. That’s why it’s important that you still have antivirus software installed on every single one of your company’s computers.
Windows 10 users can use Microsoft’s built-in software, Windows Defender, but anything older than Windows 10 will require the purchase of an antivirus software. Companies using Mac should typically be fine with the protections included in macOS.
4 - Update your software and devices
All of the software and devices you use as part of your company’s processes - whether phones, computer operating systems, web browsers or applications - all have frequent updates that bring out new features and security improvements.
These updates are constantly improving the security of your company’s software and devices, and are typically far better at thwarting hackers than antivirus software.
5 - Only install legitimate software
This leads us nicely onto the next point, it’s important that your company stops downloading sketchy software from random websites that you aren’t sure are legitimate.
This is particularly true for small companies that are looking to save money rather than investing in expensive software, but every program or application that you download onto your computer that isn’t from a legitimate source poses a potential privacy risk or security hole for your business.
HOW CAN HUBSPOT HELP WITH DIGITAL PRIVACY?
With an uptick in security incidents in the software industry that often resulted in fraudulent purchases, data breaches and malicious email, HubSpot proactively responded with recently launched new security tools that are designed to keep HubSpot data safe.
By using the following two new HubSpot security measures you can protect your mission critical data more than ever before.
1 - HubSpot Two-factor authentication
All HubSpot accounts now have the ability to require two-factor authentication (2FA) for their users on login.
Required Two-Factor Authentication forces all of the users on your hub to set up 2FA and use it when they log in. Two-factor authentication is the best way to ensure that your users' accounts are protected, since it requires both their password and a physical device associated with them for logging into the account.
2 - HubSpot SSO integration
If you have a single sign-on provider, HubSpot also offers Single Sign-On (SSO) integration with SAML 2.0 identity providers for its Enterprise customers. Integrating with your existing SSO provider can provide additional layers of security, and SSO can be required for logging into HubSpot in place of a HubSpot username and password.
SSO is available only with HubSpot Enterprise account customers, and Required 2FA is available on all HubSpot accounts.
If you have any further questions about the HubSpot platform and data security, protecting your company’s digital privacy, then please contact The Brit Agency today. Our team of experts would be more than happy to help and answer any questions you have.
