Cyber security is becoming more of a concern than ever, especially in light of the highly-publicised attacks on Sony and Target’s servers.

Big businesses have a large budget to deal with the threat of attacks, but if you’re a small to medium sized business, the chances are you’ll be lacking the budget or knowledge to protect your data against cyber attacks.

Ransomware is a major threat at the moment. It encrypts files like documents, photos and videos on one machine, then reaches out to other PCs on the network. Once the files are encrypted, the software demands you pay a sum of money to decrypt them. If your business is attacked and you have a backup, you can wipe your PC and start again, simply by restoring your backup. It might take a day or so, but it’ll potentially save you thousands.

Switching to the cloud is also something to consider. This can be scary for many businesses, as it involves handing over control of your IT system to another company. But services like Microsoft Azure and Amazon S3 are powerful, and are fast, reliable and secure. Both have a 99% guarantee in their agreements, and replicate data in servers all over the country, in case of fire or natural disaster.

Many businesses still don’t have adequate anti-virus protection on their machines, and this is a huge mistake. Anti-virus software is still very much needed in today’s environment, and it’ll only take a few hours to implement a quality anti-virus program.

Above all, education is key to avoiding cyber attacks. Simple reminders to employees, like not opening links or attachments in suspicious emails, will lower the chances of an attack. Hold regular meetings with employees to keep them up to date on the latest developments.