DETROIT – There are many kinds of businesses, and they all have different products they produce and services they offer. As such, they will all have different needs.

However, there is something they all have in common: they all need to use technology to help them stay more secure. Many kinds of technology exist now to help companies avoid data breaches, hacker attacks, and similar problems. We’ll talk about a few of those right now.

Web App Firewalls

Data breaches cost companies $4.24 million per incident. When you think about that, it’s remarkable that some businesses can even survive a single hacker attack. Not only do they lose the money, but they also lose the trust of their workers and customers.

With that in mind, you can set up a web app firewall for your company. Many businesses use web apps, and your workers might not necessarily know which ones are safe. If you have a web app firewall in place, that can be what it takes to prevent a faulty app from breaching your company’s defenses.

Web app scanning procedures will occur every time one of your workers tries to open an app from the web. The firewall takes a few moments and sifts through the contents of each app before the worker can open it. If it detects anything dangerous, it will block that app, and the worker will know to find an alternative to it.

Full Disk Encryption Procedures

A business might encrypt individual files or emails. It might not have full-disk encryption, though, and you should look into setting that up.

Whole disk encryption is also sometimes called full disk encryption or hardware encryption. This is what you need to protect your portable devices, like smartphones, tablets, or laptops. You might have workers who try to connect to your network with one of those, and you should feel confident there will not be any issues when they do.

Due to their transportable nature, smartphones, laptops, or tablets can be especially vulnerable to individuals trying to steal your data. Encrypting these devices is how you can ensure that only authorized individuals can access them.

This becomes even more critical if you’ve gone to a hybrid work model or if all your employees work from home right now. Many companies allow this in 2022, so you need to ensure that encryption is in place for your remote workforce and the devices they use.

Patch and Configuration Management

Software is never perfect. It can have flaws, and those flaws can become liabilities for your business and its operation. Hackers always look for code vulnerabilities, which is something that you might not know how to repel.

The good news is that developers usually release patches for their software on a regular basis. You should be on the lookout for those patches. A patch is a way to fix the software that your company uses every day so that a hacker cannot break into your system that way.

You should have an IT team that stays on top of your patch management. If you neglect this area, leaks and data breaches are a lot more likely, in addition to possible ransomware attacks.

Antivirus Software

Web filtering can help you repel attacks, but you should also have an antivirus software package that your business can employ. Malware is out there lurking, and what makes it so dangerous is that it constantly changes.

Even websites that you trust can have malicious code. Email can contain dangerous viruses as well.

That is why you need repetition-based antivirus software. It seeks out malware using continually updated definitions. It quarantines any malicious code it finds before it can infiltrate and damage your network.

Hosted Email

Nearly every company needs to use email occasionally, if not every day. When you use it, you should feel 100% secure.

Generally, the larger your business, the more email you will use. Hosted email should come as part of a SaaS package. SaaS stands for software as a service. You rent a software suite that comes with hosted email, as well as many other features.

In many instances, it’s worth it to pay the cost for SaaS, and the hosted email aspect of it is one of the main reasons why. The company that rents you email services also protects you from viruses by blocking out phishing spam. That’s something that your workers should know to watch out for, but every once in a while, something might slip through if they’re not careful.

With hosted email, that’s nearly impossible. Also, when you get SaaS, you don’t have to host and maintain any equipment. You can leave that up to someone else by paying a nominal fee.

Hosted email also comes with encryption, and it can help you with business continuity. Your clients and workers can communicate whenever they need to. You can reach out to the employees whenever necessary to check on a project’s progress.

Your IT Department Can Handle Most of This

As you’re reading through this list, you may notice one thing. Your IT department can probably handle setting up all of these security features. Even something like SaaS, which someone else manages, your IT team can choose. There are many SaaS options, so they might be able to recommend one based on their own experiences or word of mouth.

They can also choose which firewall you should use and which antivirus software package your company can utilize. They will probably know about everything on this list, so they can tell you what choices make sense based on the kind of company you have and your unique needs.

Using technology for your business is necessary at this point, and security is one of the main reasons why. If you set up everything on this list, you should be in good shape to succeed within your chosen niche. You can also watch for new technological advancements and use them to your advantage.

This article provided by Susan Melony