Doing business online should be done with caution | snakeriverBBB

By Robb Hicken/ BBB?s chief storyteller

Small business owners need to be as secure as they can be online.

Everything a business does ends up on the Internet and in electronic data.

?Even the most vigilant and fraud-conscious consumers can become victims of identity theft due to a data breach at a corporation,? says Dale Dixon, CEO for BBB serving the Snake River Region. ?In the case of recent data breach at Nationwide Insurance, company officials said ?no personal, financial or medical information was compromised ? only email addresses ? however, consumer trust in these companies will likely be shaken.?

Nationwide Insurance suffered a security breach in late October, losing thousands of individuals? information from its servers.?A followup investigation showed names, social security numbers, driver?s license numbers, and birth dates ?could? have been compromised.?The?hackers gained unauthorized?access to personal information of policyholders and applicants for policies, according to the Associated Press.

Digavise owner Dan Thurber says while this attack was against a giant, small businesses are most vulnerable to such attacks.

?The type of threats we?re seeing are ?created to gain access to servers when they are online,? Thurber says, who recently appeared on Business at its Best on KTVB?s Idaho?s Very Own 24/7 and KIFI?s News Channel 8. ?We study what?s going on in the black market to understand these attacks, and defend against them.?

Most small businesses don?t have the money or equipment to set up a continual, strong defense against these malicious invaders, he says.

?They are an easy target,? he says. ?So, some of the best defense you can do is make certain that you are updated. Updates happen for a reason. I know updates are annoying, and you have to reboot your computer, but they are there to protect ?you.?

Websites and servers need to be maintained, an area that is often overlooked. Too often, a small business sets up its equipment, installs the latest protection, but then fail to return to check and verify that it is still maintaining integrity.

?Being able to understand how it happens, is going to be able to provide you with the best security,? he says. ?You should use a professional to

To protect yourself from identity theft, BBB suggests:

• Develop good habits for creating passwords ? A strong password is long and has letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers. A variety of characters makes the password better. When possible use 14 characters or more. Never use the word ?password? or personal information such as your name, birthdate, driver?s license, social security number or similar information. Also, avoid sequences or repeated characters and test your password with a password checker to test the strength of your password automatically.
• Protect your password from prying eyes ? Never give your password in an email or in response to an email request. Do not type passwords on computers you do not control. Do not show your passwords to others. Do not store passwords in a file on your computer. Keep a record of your passwords in a safe secure place. Use different passwords for different websites and services.
• Avoid phishing emails ? Phishing emails are a common way for hackers to get at your personal information or break into your computer. Do not respond to requests for financial information. Legitimate businesses do not ask personal or financial information by email. Don?t click on any links or open any attachments to emails until you have confirmed that they are not malicious. Email addresses that don?t match up, typos and grammatical mistakes are common red flags of a malicious phishing email. Also beware of unsolicited emails from companies with which you have no association. Make sure you have current antivirus software and that all security patches have been installed on the computer.

Small business owners looking for advice on preventing data breaches are encouraged to check out BBB?s Data Security ? Made Simpler for free guidance at www.bbb.org/data-security.

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