Traditional business insurance is meant to protect businesses’ property, employees and legal standing. It covers such things as property damage and liability.
Protecting your business requires the use of multiple tools and security strategies on a variety of fronts. Not only do you need to protect your business physically and in cyberspace, but you also need to be able to protect your business legally. Here are six ways you can protect your online business legally.
1. Utilize Adequate Cybersecurity Tools
One of the ways you can protect your business is by using the right cybersecurity tools. You may be at risk of a spoofing attack or various types of malware and phishing attacks. Many cybersecurity tools provide monitoring, shielding and quarantining protocols to protect you against such attacks. You should utilize network security, firewalls, malware, antivirus and spyware security software, data backups and access security features such as multi factor authentication and password managers. All of these measures will mitigate the risk of security breaches.
2. Focus on Privacy
Privacy is one of the most essential aspects of security you need to focus on in order to protect your business’s legal interests, particularly if you’re conducting all or most of your business online. You should set up privacy protections on all devices and online services you set up. Make sure all settings related to digital and online privacy are as strong and specific as possible. You should also make sure your guidelines regarding collecting, tracing and using customer data are thorough and easily understood.
3. Perform Regular Digital Housekeeping
You should implement a set of best practices for digital housekeeping, both for your employees and your customers. You can enforce the best practices as part of your cybersecurity policy for your employees, but they can only be strongly suggested to your users. Digital housekeeping can involve using a password manager, regularly backing up and organizing your data, regularly clearing your browser history and cache, installing updates and patches in a timely manner and running your antivirus software appropriately.
4. Invest in Business Insurance Coverage
Traditional business insurance is meant to protect businesses’ property, employees and legal standing. It covers such things as property damage and liability. These aspects of business insurance coverage can still benefit online businesses. Even if you don’t have a brick-and-mortar store, you can still use insurance to cover various equipment and domains. You should also consider investing in cybersecurity insurance. There are independent cybersecurity insurance plans and some providers also offer this type of coverage. This type of coverage specifically covers any losses incurred as a result of cybercrime.
5. Make Sure Your Business Has a Legal Presence
This step comprises two actions. You need to make sure your business has a status as a legal entity and ensure you own your business’s name. Try to make sure your business is classified as a protected business structure if you can, such as an LLC. Such structures help to keep your company assets separated from your personal assets so each set can be better protected. Owning your business’s name refers to registering your business’s domain name. This ensures your business is less likely to be confused for other businesses and that it can legally exist under the name you chose.
6. Make Sure Your Copyrights Are Protected
Copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property registrations are essential to protecting your business’s financial and legal interests. These registrations help legally safeguard your intellectual property from people stealing or copying it and trying to pass it off as their own. People can’t legally profit off of or distribute intellectual property they don’t own. If someone attempts to, then you have the legal grounds to dispute his or her actions. Online businesses in particular can benefit quickly from copyright law. When copyright infringement is noticed, the copyright holder can contact the host site and have the person, business or content infringing on the copyright removed almost immediately.
All your security features should work in tandem. Don’t neglect one aspect of security in favor of strengthening another. That leads to more vulnerabilities.
