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Dave Thomas

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Will Your Small Business Be an Identity Theft Target?

Dave Thomas

August 15, 2016


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What would be your worst nightmare as a small business owner?

If you ranked being the victim of identity theft on the list, you would likely have some company with you.

When it comes to maintaining a healthy and prosperous small business, you have myriad of tasks you must take on and successfully complete.

One such task is always doing your utmost to make sure you’re not prone to an attack from identity theft thieves.

In the event they strike, they can do a ton of damage to you that is not only financial in nature, but can also be a hit on your company’s personal reputation with customers.

That said will your small business be an identity theft target?

Don’t Let Thieves Be the Aggressors

In order for your small business to best withstand attacks from identity theft thieves, you must look at it much like a sporting competition.

Typically, those teams or individuals who are always on the defense will lose more times than not.

On the flip side, taking the fight to the other team and being on the offense as much as possible oftentimes yields better results when all is said and done.

So, how can your small business get the upper-hand against those looking to do it harm?

For starters, it is important to assess your small business and why it would be a target in the first place.

Given the fact that many smaller companies do not have the financial capital, manpower, advertising and marketing budgets etc. of their bigger counterparts, one might think the former would be less of a target. In fact, it can be for all of those reasons and other ones not mentioned that smaller businesses stand out as prime targets for criminals.

In the minds of many criminals (especially identity theft thieves), they may perceive the smaller businesses to be those likely not to have much protection in place.

This is why opting for brands like review ProtectMyID and others like them makes so much sense.

Such companies can offer businesses (and consumers of course) a wide range of plans, one of which will best suit your online and offline needs when it comes to personal and financial identities.

From computer protection to actual requirements in place to make sure employees (including you) do not tip their hands as far as company and customer data goes, some smaller businesses may be lax in these areas. Where there is lax enforcement of security rules, the doors are opened wider for criminals to come on in.

 

Reassess Your Security Measures

To lessen the odds your small business will suffer a significant data breach, start by doing a full assessment (from A to Z) of where your company may be its most vulnerable.

Among the key items to focus on:

  • Is your computer network as safe as it can be?
  • Do you allow your employees to use social media at work? If so, can they tweet and share only work-related items or also personal items? Many businesses have rather tight restrictions on what their employees can and can’t do around social networking.
  • If employees travel for work, do you allow/want them using workplace laptops etc. on the road? If so, can you be totally sure that the connections in hotels and other public spots are 100 percent secure? Public servers can be one of the prime targets for identity theft thieves. Do you allow your employees to use a company credit card when on the road at networking events etc. or must they use their own (you will then reimburse them)? If it is the former, the possibility of losing a card and/or having its information stolen should always be a cause for concern.
  • In the event customer data is breached, what is your plan of action? Companies able to respond quickly and professionally stand to minimize the potential negative fallout among their customers.

 

You may feel like there is no 100 percent foolproof means to stop an identity theft thief if he or she is truly determined to do damage to your brand.

That said you can greatly reduce the bulls-eye that could very well be hanging over your small business right this moment.


                   



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