Worried about your business safety? 5 simple ways to protect your business

Building a business takes blood, sweat, and tears. Highs and lows are a part of entrepreneurship, but stealing and fraud shouldn’t be. 

Unfortunately, every business is at risk to some extent. Physical theft, cybercrime, petty fraud, malware attack – the list of threats is long. If you aren’t taking active steps to protect your business, you run the risk of paying a high cost later.

Businesses lose 7.5% of their annual revenue to fraudsters and cybercriminals. Frauds have always been a part of conducting business, but the internet has added a new dimension to it. As a result, understanding cybersecurity is a necessary business skill in 2022.

We hope these five simple ways to protect your business will help you understand the risks and mitigate them. 

5 simple ways to protect your business

Cybersecurity is an important element of business safety, but it’s not the only element. In this guide, we have gone beyond cybersecurity to talk about legal issues, regulatory guidelines, and corporate training.

Let’s find out more about five simple ways to protect your business.

1. Protect against chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud is a tricky subject because it involves separating real buyers from fake buyers. Doing this is not easy, especially when you’re running an online store with buyers across the world. Everyone is anonymous on the internet, and criminals can operate from any part of the world.

When you read more about it on SEON’s website, you’ll understand that chargeback frauds are technically simple. A customer orders an item from an online store, and then claims they did not make the order. If the claim is made after the order is delivered, the fraudster gets to keep both the product and the refund amount.

The communication gap between banks and merchants facilitates chargeback fraud. Credit card refunds are often processed by banks directly without cross-checking the transaction with merchants.

Chargeback fraud is not always criminal in nature. It’s also called friendly fraud because genuine customers can also commit chargeback fraud. In many cases, chargeback fraud is also a result of merchant errors.

There’re two ways of dealing with chargeback fraud. You use a fraud detection tool, and you must report chargebacks to banks. An efficient fraud detection tool is the only way to secure your business. But at the same time, it’s important to report chargebacks. Most chargeback claims are not reported by merchants, which fosters the ecosystem of this fraud.

There’re various fraud detection tools for businesses of all sizes. Using the right fraud detection tool is the single most effective way to prevent chargeback fraud. 

2. Get your business insured

Business insurance is a specialized field and it’s very different from buying personal insurance policies. The most common insurances are general liability insurance and commercial property insurance. But in 2022, that may not be enough if you want to safeguard your business from potential loss.

Most businesses at least have general liability and commercial property insurance because their need is apparent. If a customer gets an injury at your store, general liability insurance will protect you. Commercial property insurance covers fire disasters, burglary, etc.

Business interruption insurance is an important type of insurance that protects your income during times when the business cannot operate. If you have to shut down your business for a natural disaster, business interruption insurance will keep you covered.

Perhaps the most critical insurance in 2022 is cyber insurance. Cyber insurance was not common even a few years back, but it’s mandatory to have one today. Cyberattacks happen without warning and are often too fast to be able to do anything. With cyber insurance, you can protect your business from all forms of fraud and cybercrime.

Errors and Omissions (E&O) insurance is another essential insurance for businesses, particularly accounting businesses. If your client faces a huge loss due to some errors on your end, E&O insurance can save you. It’s already widespread in industries where minor miscalculations, typos, and errors are common.

You must insure your business against cyberattacks, human-made disasters, and unforeseen circumstances. Running a business without doing so is a huge risk. 

3. Get legal assistance

Small businesses often bypass professional legal consultancy. But you’ll never see large businesses doing the same.

Don’t wait for legal trouble to get help from lawyers and legal experts. Preventive measures are always better than letting legal issues run their course. If your business is sued, it’ll be a huge unplanned expenditure. With the right legal assistance, you can prevent it.

Corporate lawyers are essential to be compliant with the newest regulations. Regulations keep changing, and your company policies and operations should always be compliant with the latest regulations. Not doing so will invite hefty fines, loss of business, and damage to brand awareness.

Unlike regular lawyers, corporate lawyers spend much less of their time in courtrooms. Their task is to help businesses stay within legal boundaries while conducting business. While large companies have in-house legal experts, third-party legal assistance is the best option for small businesses.

In the odd event of someone suing your business, immediate legal help is the most important thing. Don’t rule out the possibility of that altogether. Many businesses have been sued in the past, and they have had to pay a huge price.

Corporate lawyers also have expertise in tax laws, intellectual property rights, securities laws, contract laws, and so on. Many law firms also have specialized wings for small businesses. Sign up for legal assistance if you want to see your business prosper. Don’t wait for a lawsuit against you to do it.

4. Take consent management seriously

Consent management has come to the forefront only after General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other data protection laws were enforced. All websites today must have consent banners for each visitor. The idea behind consent management is to empower users on how much digital footprint they want to leave on a website they visit.

There’re plenty of consent management tools on the internet, and most of them integrate seamlessly into existing websites. While consent management is not tricky in itself, following all guidelines at all places is indeed difficult. Consent management tools use automation to add banners and consent forms wherever needed.

In 2022, omnichannel marketing will be very common. People access websites from different devices – laptops, smartphones, and even smart TVs. A consent management application ensures due consent collection on each of these channels. It’s much faster and more efficient than manually handling consent banners and forms.

Building and maintaining a single consent repository is another function of consent management tools. It’s a database for all consent-related activities on a website and acts as evidence in case of disputes. A consent repository also unifies consent collected from the same user from different collection points.

Ensuring easy withdrawal of consent is an integral part of consent management. This applies to cookie consent as well as email and marketing consent. Choose a complete consent management platform that suits your needs, but make sure it covers all the basic pointers. Consent management is yet another way of protecting your business. 

5. Increase awareness through employee training 

Employee training is essential for any of the above strategies to work. An organization will  typically have employees working across departments. Irrespective of teams and departments, every employee should receive basic training on how to be more aware of threats.

Employees are particularly susceptible to social engineering, which leads to them disclosing confidential information. Recently, a teenager hacked into Uber by manipulating an employee to disclose their Slack credentials. Instances like this can be avoided with basic employee training.

It’s a misconception that only employees who handle sensitive data should receive cybersecurity awareness training. Every employee who has access to the central database, directly or indirectly, must be trained on common cyberattack strategies.

Remote offices are at an increased risk of cyberattacks. It’s much easier to manage all systems when employees are working from an office. The same is not true for employees working with public Wi-Fi, like those in cafés.

Remote offices and teams must ensure sufficient training for all employees. Simple things like two-factor authentication, using unauthorized software, choosing strong passwords, etc. can make a huge difference in the overall cybersecurity framework of a company.

Employees should also know how to react once a data breach or hack is detected. They should know how to identify a legitimate threat or warning. The company as a whole should have a plan to deal with cybersecurity crises.

 Several corporate training courses focus on cybersecurity and making employees more aware of it. However, corporate training is not the end-all of cybersecurity awareness. Instead, it’s a continuous process for all employees.

Final word — act with integrity

As much as it is true that you shouldn’t hand over your hard-earned assets to criminals, it is also very much needed that you act with integrity as it prevents you from complicated lawsuits and boosts customer trust and engagement.  

Protect your business today with online tools, legal help, cybersecurity software, and awareness. Adopt strategies that take into account every facet of business safety.  

We hope this guide helps you take the right steps to ensure business safety.

Author bio

Atreyee Chowdhury is a freelance content writer with more than 10+ years of professional experience. She is passionate about helping SMBs and enterprises achieve their content marketing goals with her carefully crafted and compelling content. She loves to read, travel, and experiment with different cuisines in her free time. You can follow her on LinkedIn.

 

29/09/2022