Cloud security advices by Ben Climer and Safe Network Solutions right now: According to Security Magazine, the average cost of a data breach for a small business is $36,000 to $50,000. Of course, this number is much greater when we look at large successful businesses. It was also reported that 60% of small businesses went out of business within 6 months of falling victims to cyberattacks, according to Keeper Security and the Ponemon Institute. Running the risk of closing your doors forever due to a crippling cyberattack is just one of the many reasons to implement Cybersecurity Awareness Training. Here are some additional reasons why cybersecurity awareness training is critical in Nashville and Middle Tennessee: To Prevent Breaches and Attacks – It doesn’t get simpler than this first reason, Cybersecurity Awareness Training prevents breaches and attacks. The more your employees know how to identify threats, the safer your sensitive data is. Discover more info on Ben Climer.

Ben Climer has been in the Service Team Lead and Solution Architect role for 5 years. His favorite aspect of SNS is the great team we have, which allows us to deliver excellent service to our clients. When there’s a challenging problem at hand, Ben is the one we can count on for complete answers and elegant solutions. Ben built his first computer at the age of 8, started building web applications at 12 and before joining SNS, went on to compete in National Computer Repair competitions. He worked for HP as well as music row clients prior to joining SNS. Outside of work, Ben enjoys working on cars and traveling.

With over 10 years of work experience in the IT industry, Ben Climer is a passionate and skilled CTO at Safe Network Solutions, a leading provider of network security and cloud solutions. Ben Climer has a strong background in technical sales, network administration, and solution architecture. His mission is to deliver innovative, reliable, and cost-effective solutions that meet the needs and expectations of our clients. Collaboration, learning, and excellence, and striving to create a culture of trust, empowerment, accountability within the team are Ben Climer’s goals.

As the CTO, Ben Climer is responsible for overseeing the technical direction, strategy, and vision of the company, as well as mentoring a team of talented engineers and consultants. He has successfully implemented and troubleshooted various projects involving Hyper-V, Azure, Office 365, AWS, and wireless point-to-point technologies, ensuring high performance, security, and scalability. He also participated in various CTF competitions, demonstrating proficiency in cloud and cybersecurity. Ben Climer enjoys staying updated on the latest trends and developments in the IT field, and sharing his knowledge and insights with the community.

Your top priority when beefing up your security infrastructure is probably going to be protecting the business itself. You want to ensure that no one can destroy your systems, steal your data or otherwise compromise your business. But you also have to secure your website for the sake of your customers, who submit their personal information through it and trust you to keep it safe. Hackers exploit flaws in your site’s coding and scripting — any weakness can be a route into your system. Experts say that unless a site has been audited by a security team, chances are it’s rife with weaknesses. Credit card-payment processors are also common targets, so even if your site is ship-shape, your customers are still vulnerable from that angle. For that reason, sometimes it’s best for small businesses to use a service like PayPal to process payments and protect customer information.

All employees should be trained on the use of passwords. Examples of such training would include: Making sure employees do not write passwords down (where they can be stolen). Ensuring employees do not share passwords over any online communication, unless the communication is encrypted. Having employees create strong passwords and use a company password manager. Making sure employees do not re-use passwords for multiple company applications, or between personal and company use.

If you plan on traveling, change all of the passwords you regularly use. Similarly, if you must create a PIN for a safe or security box in a hotel room, make sure it’s unique and not something you commonly use. Don’t skimp on password creation either—a numerical sequence is not ideal. Take the time to create something that will keep a criminal out of your personal property. Once you return home, you can change all the passwords back.

Use Anti-Virus Protection & Firewall. Anti-virus (AV) protection software has been the most prevalent solution to fight malicious attacks. AV software blocks malware and other malicious viruses from entering your device and compromising your data. Use anti-virus software from trusted vendors and only run one AV tool on your device. Using a firewall is also important when defending your data against malicious attacks. A firewall helps screen out hackers, viruses, and other malicious activity that occurs over the Internet and determines what traffic is allowed to enter your device. Windows and Mac OS X comes with their respective firewalls, aptly named Windows Firewall and Mac Firewall. Your router should also have a firewall built in to prevent attacks on your network.

Ben Climer and Safe Network Solutions about data breaches: A Malicious Insider. This person purposely accesses and/or shares data with the intent of causing harm to an individual or company. The malicious insider may have legitimate authorization to use the data, but the intent is to use the information in nefarious ways. Lost or Stolen Devices. An unencrypted and unlocked laptop or external hard drive — anything that contains sensitive information — goes missing. Malicious Outside Criminals. These are hackers who use various attack vectors to gather information from a network or an individual. Since malicious data breaches result from cyberattacks, you should know what to watch for.