When you’re a business owner your company becomes your life- it’s something you pour your heart and soul into. Therefore it makes sense that we want to protect it both from failure and being jeopardised- and one thing to be aware of is criminal activity. Burglars can operate both in person and online, and to keep your business safe, you need to implement a multi-faceted approach that protects in both of these areas. Is your company’s security up to scratch? Here are a few things to consider.
In Person: Think About Your Office Security
Many burglars target businesses because they know they are full of valuable items- from equipment to cash, even things like customer details which can be used for identity fraud purposes. Burglars also know that most offices are empty outside of working hours giving them plenty of opportunity to be in and out without being spotted. For this reason, a good quality business CCTV system and burglar alarm is essential, not only will these things act as a deterrent (be sure to display signs stating these are in use) but if someone does get in it will be useful for getting rid of them too.
Use things like window shutters if you’re on a lower floor, these can be pulled across and locked at night, and then folded back so you can’t see them during the day. You should use a good safe too, never keep too much money on site but any you do take should be securely locked away until it can be taken to the bank.
Online: Protect Against Hackers
As well as protecting your physical assets, you should be sure to protect your business online too. Your first step would be to protect your data, and on of the best ways to do this is by backing up to the cloud. Here you have no physical files that can be stolen or damaged, the information is all encrypted for safety and stored on servers. This also means that if you have employees working remotely they can easily access the information they need since it’s stored online rather than on a physical computer in the office.
Companies like Firewall Technical can make sure that your business has the correct infrastructure and that it’s properly protected so it could be worth hiring some experts if you’re looking to update this. A simple yet effective way to protect against thieves is also to use complex passwords. Use a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and punctuation.
Better Safe Than Sorry: Get Insured
Finally, despite your best efforts something might still go wrong and so getting insured gives you peace of mind. If something is stolen, having insurance means it will be replaced and won’t leave you out of pocket. Public liability insurance and employee liability insurance also ensures that if something happens to the public or your workers, you won’t end up paying out for a lawsuit and potentially going bankrupt.