By Gregory Pings, XEROX – About 15 years ago, a friend told me about her job at a private security firm. Her duties included finding information about people. She matter-of-factly told me how easy it was to obtain names, birthdays, addresses and phone numbers. Armed with this minimal information, she could call most businesses or agencies on the phone and learn everything she needed to know about anyone.
Guess who purchased a paper shredder the next day?
Information security isn’t about just one thing, especially for your customers, and paper isn’t their only exposure. But you already know that, and maybe you already know what I’m about to tell you.
The cost of cybercrime is expected to rise to $6 trillion by 2021 according to market research firm Cybersecurity Ventures. For the criminals, your customers’ data is at the core of a lucrative business model, which is why the threat landscape always changes. While information security is several things, it is never a one-and-done thing, making knowledgeable, ongoing support in the form of a channel partner an excellent resource for any business.
Here’s a list of things you can teach your SMB customers to help improve their information security strategy:
- Assume you’ve been compromised.
The old saying “it’s not if, but when,” is officially overused because “when” has very likely happened by now. Find the vulnerabilities in your system and shut them down.
