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In the information age it isn’t a matter of ‘if’ your business will be hacked but ‘when.’ The frequency of cybercrimes is continuing to rise because Australian businesses are seen as an easy target for local and international cyber attackers. James Gillard, Managing Director of Insurance Made Easy (IME) asks window furnishings companies, “How safe is your computer?”
“Whether you are a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor, parts supplier, retailer or installer in the blinds and awnings industry, your business is more than likely to have a website,” says IME Managing Director James Gillard. “All businesses rely on email communication email with third parties, and you are more than likely to have sensitive client details on your current systems.”
The advent of Cyber Insurance provides the opportunity for Businesses to mitigate their losses;
13 point checklist on how to be more Cyber Savvy
| 1 | Use strong passwords that avoid using personal information, e.g. birthdays, your kid’s names |
| 2 | Change your common passwords at least once every 90 days |
| 3 | Install required anti-virus and malware software on your computer |
| 4 | Regularly back up to an external hard drive or the cloud |
| 5 | Be careful when surfing the web, the sites you visit, and any two-way activity that you engage in such as chatting on forums |
| 6 | Re-think any “click here” buttons on sites or emails. This is done to steal your IP address (your location) and use it elsewhere unlawfully |
| 7 | Have a strong firewall and use a trusted professional to provide advice |
| 8 | Educate yourself, your employees and even your clients on the risks that are associated in keeping the information, whether on hardware or software, safe on-line habits to practice and data protection |
| 9 | Stay on top of any breaches, watch for email alerts |
| 10 | Have an incident response plan in place to know what to do should this happen to you and test your privacy control |
| 11 | Look into resources that you can use to train your staff |
| 12 | Ask questions and find out what else you can do to improve your security |
| 13 | Check any requests for payment of accounts if a request is received for change of account details to which a payment is to be made |
“We urge all business owners to contact their insurers or brokers to help investigate and review current insurance covers. Using an insurance broker will save time and money because they can provide businesses with expert knowledge, advice, and negotiate competitive premiums on their clients’ behalf.”
