Keeping Your Online Business Safe

When you have an online business, making a profit involves more than just selling a successful product or service. You also must know how to guard against hackers and cyber attackers.

The first step to avoiding hacking and viruses is to avoid opening spam emails. These emails are more than just annoying, they are also potentially dangerous. Many of these messages contain viruses so when you open them, or open the attachment contained on them, the virus infects your computer and wreaks havoc. Delete suspicious emails immediately without opening them.

Second, it is important to stop criminals from using phishing tactics to trick your customers. Register sites with similar domain names to prevent criminals from using these domains to set up a similar site and trick your customers into sharing their financial information. Also, provide your customers with one unchanging email address by which they can contact you, and let them know that your company will never ask for personal information via email.

Business security software can keep your computers clean and free from viruses, worms, and other threats. It is also a good idea to regularly back up important data with a storage program or by burning important records to archival DVDs and blank media CD Rs.

Finally, limit who can see the sensitive information. Only managers and those who need the data should have access to customer's private information or financial records, for example. The fewer people who have access, the less likely it is that information will be stolen or an employee's user account will be hacked.

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