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Corporate espionage… A sinister plot to a movie or a real threat to your small business? You’d be surprised by what you don’t know about your company’s cyber security.

This week on Xero Gravity we are joined by our very own Felix Shi. Felix is the product security specialist at Xero and has seen it all when it comes to cyber breaches. On this week’s episode, we explore the holes hiding in your business’ cyber security systems and offer some valuable steps you can take to protect yourself.

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Keep in mind that viruses aren’t the only intruders trying to make a home in your business’ virtual systems. Cyber criminals are getting smarter, and a lot more creative. They organize phishing scams trying to get to your sensitive data, and will even hold all of your business files hostage until you agree to pay a ransom. And your small business is not immune.

“In my personal opinion, the biggest threat to small business and why they should care about cyber security is that normally small businesses lack the resources to commit to security. Unlike large corporations, they don’t have tens and thousands of dollars to throw around to buy the latest and greatest product. Nor do they have a dedicated security team when incidents happen,” says Felix.

Luckily, there are things you can do to protect yourself from falling victim to these cyber bullies – and many of them are quite simple. The best thing you can do is educate yourself (and your employees) about these security threats so they know what to look for.

“Well, you just can’t run say install “phishing-protection.exe” on say, Joe from accounting. It doesn’t work like that. So I think it is important to run a rigorous security awareness and training program at your company.” continues Felix.

A secure and unique password is another simple, yet often overlooked, way to protect your business. Best practice is to keep your personal and work passwords separate and change them often. And no, p@ssw0rd won’t work. Also, Felix highly recommends that wherever possible, employ two factor authentication to your accounts.

Tune in to hear more on two factor authentication and even more tips on protecting your business from cyber threats – both outside as well as inside your company. And hear how some questionable life choices led Felix to become a hacker, a legal one of course.