Running a business can be an exhausting endeavor at the very best of times, but when having to contend with myriad potential online threats, the job can become overwhelming.
To avoid having your business suffer unfairly at the hands of malicious parties, measures need to be put in place. Failing to do so can land your company on some treacherously hard to navigate ground, resulting in a damaged reputation and a loss of data that can be difficult to ever fully recover from.
If you feel like you could be doing slightly more to protect your business from online scams, here are some tips you might want to think about.
Refund Protection
Refunds are a standard part of everyday business. Sometimes, dishonest customers seek to take advantage of a company’s refund policy, essentially committing a form of fraud.
To ensure that this does not happen to you, obtaining reliable refund abuse protection is vital.
This can allow you to continue supporting your loyal customers, without having to worry about falling for a morally bankrupt scam anytime soon.
Employee Awareness
Training your employees and helping them to recognize potential threats before they can do damage is a good way to keep your business safe.
Similarly, there is an unfortunate truth in that many data breaches and successful attacks are a result of human error, or even from malicious employees themselves.
In order to reduce this risk, it is important to only give out passwords and admin access to employees that you truly trust.
Introducing extra authentication steps into your network can also help you in this regard, for example, external approval from an IT department, or a two-step login process that requires a personal, verified ID number.
Recognize Your Assets and Suppliers
If you know your company like the back of your hand, which assets belong to you, who your partners are, and which third-party platforms you use, there is a good chance you will be able to spot any threats, as they will likely stick out to someone who knows what to look for.
For example, this can help you recognize unusual network activity on your company system, enabling you to quickly get to the root of the issue rather than leaving it to fester and gather momentum.
The same can be said for understanding your third-party platforms and apps. Unfortunately, they cannot always be trusted, so taking the time to figure out if they are legitimate or not is a must, as they could be a potential offender lurking behind the scenes with access to all of your sensitive information.
Random Audits
Whether they are truly random, or simply just appear to be to your staff, conducting company audits without warning might be a good way to expose any breaches, or catch any dishonest internal practices. Conducting security assessments in general is a great way to make sure your business is protected from scammers, especially if you take a skeptical approach and learn to recognize your trusted associates.
