In an age of data leaks and hacking scandals, keeping customer data safe should be a priority for every business. Here are five ways to provide protection for private information and maintain your organisation’s online reputation.

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Comprehensive protection
First and foremost, you need to procure and integrate protections for everything from your network infrastructure to your email system. This will enable you to sift through all the traffic and eliminate malicious software before it takes hold, lessening the likelihood of a high-profile hack such as the one that recently hit the NHS.
Employee training
Human error can cause breaches even when your underlying security is sound. This means that staff need to be trained to identify phishing scams and avoid falling victim to them, while also being reminded to get in touch with the IT department when a scam is detected so that the appropriate action can be taken.
Essential updates
Cybercriminals generally choose to exploit weaknesses in operating systems and software to execute attacks, which is why vendors issue regular updates to patch these vulnerabilities. You should therefore keep your business systems up to date, deploying patches with the use of an assessment tool.

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Pre-emptive security measures
Endpoint protection solutions should be used if you want to create a secure environment in which you can operate. It is better to stop malware getting onto your network than having to deal with the clean-up after infection occurs.
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Network segregation
For the ultimate in modern security, network segregation is the way to go. This involves compartmentalising the different server resources that are available to your departments, meaning that there are individual firewalls for each, rather than keeping all your eggs in one basket.
No security solution can be entirely resilient and uncrackable; however, by embracing an approach that is multifaceted and made up of many layers, you give your firm the best chance of standing up to hackers. Crucially, it is important to act to improve security now rather than allowing a breach to occur and acting in the aftermath – by this point, it may be too late to repair your reputation.