Taking care of your network often goes overlooked by business owners, but that mistake can cost you thousands of dollars. We have a few simple steps that you can follow to keep your system secure.
First, backup your files every day. That ensures that a catastrophic loss does not become worse because of poor protection measures. According to information from Symantec, only 23 percent of business owners have backed up their data on a daily basis. In addition, fewer than 50 percent back it up on a weekly basis. A failure to do this can lead to heartbreaking losses.
You have to make sure that you keep your antivirus firewall on and updated. A lot of companies use expired antivirus licenses, or they disable the program because they do not like how it slows down their system. That leaves you vulnerable to viruses, spam and dangerous downloads. Because of poor firewall protection, around 40 percent of small to medium-sized business owners have had their network hacked, and in many cases, businesses do not even realize that this has taken place.
To protect yourself, you have to keep the security patches updated and change your passwords regularly. If you have a dangerously full server drive, it can lead to sluggish emailing and server crashes. For that reason, you want to monitor your server drives. Many times, the best route to security is not the easiest road, but you will be glad you took the precautionary measures. To learn more about protecting your network, pick up the phone and call Intelligent Technical Solutions (ITS).
What Does It Cost to Have No Backup Plan?
Around 50 percent of small business owners admit that they have no disaster recovery plan, according to Symantec. In the survey, around 41 percent even admitted that they had not given much thought to a disaster recovery plan. That said, what happens if disaster strikes? Will your business be prepared? You cannot afford to have employee productivity and customer accessibility impacted because of a downed network.
When your systems are unavailable, it does real damage to your business through downtime. You also have to look at the level of IT support that you will have available if you run into downtime. If you have little IT support, perhaps an IT support company in Los Angeles can help you to minimize the damage. They are confident that we can bring your business back up and running with the minimal level of downtime.
Without your most critical data being protected, it can quickly become frustrating if trouble strikes. Oftentimes, we encourage companies to back up their systems through an off-site server in multiple locations because if fire or flooding occurs, it will not destroy all the data at your company.
You should also ask yourself if your system has been given the right level of protection from theft and hackers. Passwords and sensitive data should be changed whenever you leave the business unit. If you do not regularly check your backup system, you could be at a high risk. Never assume that a backup system will protect you in your day of need. You have to regularly test it to make sure that it stays working.