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4 Steps to Take If Your Small Business Has Been Hacked

 
With technology being omnipresent in today's business world it brings about both ways to enhance a small business as well as ways to sabotage a small business. One of the biggest threats technology brings is the potential for being hacked. From websites, to emails, and even data storage, anything that is virtual is open to any hacker and therefore vulnerable. Here are a few tips on ways to deal with a hacking.

 

 
Containment

It's important to know with any hacking that containment is the first step in dealing with a hacking. This includes things from resetting passwords to running anti-virus program cleanings and scans. All of those containment procedures will ensure that the hacking will at least be stopped from causing further damage. On website hacks, be sure to remove the corrupted files or at least hold them off the server so they will not be accessible online.

 
Get help

For small businesses that do not have an IT person on hand, the first step would be calling the company that handles the platform that got hacked. For instance, for website hacks contact the business that manages the web hosting, such as GoDaddy, which offers 24/7 customer service as well as great online resources to help. On the GoDaddy Help page, some helpful tips are shared on how to deal with a website hacking.

 
Report it

If the hack leads to a data breach where customer files or information was potentially accessed, then it's crucial to let customers know. With so many large companies getting bad press on how they handled data breeches, customers are looking for more transparency. In Fortune's article "10 Things You Need To Do If Your Business Gets Hacked," it is stated, "What's worse than a massive data breach? Not reporting it."

 
Prepare

After a hack, it is important as a small business owner to view the unfortunate event as a learning tool. If a small business did not have backups of their website or files, then they should hopefully see the importance of how those serve as a fail-safe for their information in case a hacking does happen. For small businesses that have been fortunate enough to not be hacked, please use this article as a reminder to do these preparations as no one is immune to the potential of their technology being hacked.

 

 
This article was written by Suzy Fielders for CBS Small Business Pulse
 

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