are allowed to expire, listings have bad or outdated info or websites are compromised. A domain can be petitioned and transferred by devious parties.
These are just a few of the ways your businesses identity can be compromised. The bad guys spend day and night thinking of new ways to get what you worked for. We can spend days upon days listing every devious manner that the thieves can or potentially could use to steal your hard earned business. Here are just a few ways to help protect yourself.
1) The most important protection a business owner has is a corporate structure. A good business lawyer to properly incorporate and maintain a corporate structure, with sound operating agreements and regular prompt filing paired with regular, vigilant maintenance is your first and best line or protection.
2) A good business banking relationship and/or business accountant. Changes to your banking can include: restrictions on wire transfers, amounts or even an outright ban; a two authentication system for larger amounts of transfers; multiple accounts to prevent large fund transfers; different accounts for taxes, payroll, payables, receivables, and operations and daily reconciliations of funds.
3) Solid professional IT support. A good IT expert will help with firewalls, separating data, anti-virus. The good ones will also advise you about proper use of web sites, secure internet connection and ensure you are protected.
4) Most data is stolen via social engineered interactions. An email that seems like it is from your bank or a vendor, a USB flash drive found in a parking lot, a misspelled website (gooogle.com, wellfargo.com). All of these and many more are designed to trick you into giving the thief the data he or she needs to access your accounts. ONLY you can prevent these types of thefts. They require you and your employees to be trained and disciplined about following procedures that ensure you don’t get fooled. Your IT expert should be able to help you write and implement these procedures.
5) Check your credit scores. D-N-B, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion all compile and track your business’s credit scores. You can request your information from each and should do so regularly.
6) Track your on line identity. Make sure you domains are properly registered in your name and that you have control over them ( many a business find out the guy you made their website still owns the domain). Register and claim you identity on directory services. Regularly visit and check up on these items.
Most of these are very general suggestions. Getting experts from outside your business to examine your business and work together and with you to strengthen your protection is the best way to keep your business identity safe. Outside experts can bring a much wider scope of knowledge than employees can provide. Often employees develop tunnel vision and industry knowledge fades to the specific needs of your business and doesn’t allow for a big picture, latest trends analysis. Outside experts work with multiple businesses and can bring a different view point to the table. Making these changes require time and is often uncomfortable. Changing corporate procedures can often be met with resistance from current employees. Only strong leadership from senior management/owners can bring about the change needed to protect your business.
Adam Roig owns Black Flag Consulting, a corporate IT consulting firm specializing in servicing small businesses from 500 to 5 employees. www.blackflagconsulting.com and can be reached at [email protected]
Black Flag Consulting is a full service IT consulting and administration firm. From project management for upgrades, software or network growth; to full IT administration ; to Outsourced Chief Information Officers; Black Flag consulting can provide your small to medium business the IT expertise that is requires and deserves.
Our clients use Black Flag Consulting for a variety of services; One time network upgrades; Emergency network assistance; IT administration; Network administration; Quickbooks maintenance; Data recovery; Campus Wireless design, setup and installation; Virus Data Blackmail recovery; Business Planning; Advanced support for current IT staff; and much more.