Companies hoping to see the year out without any disasters might want to prioritise protecting their data, as online crime continues to be a growing problem among businesses. 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently revealed there were as many as 6.4 million reports received by the Suspicious Email Reporting Services (SERS) in 2022, resulting in 67,300 bogus URLS being removed. 

Since its launch in 2020, it has dealt with 15.8 million reports and taken down nearly 200,000 sites. 

NCSC deputy director for economy and society resilience Sarah Lyons said cyber criminals are becoming better at making their scams more convincing. 

“By shining a light on these scams we want to help people more easily spot the common tricks fraudsters use, so that ultimately they can stay safer online,” she stated. 

It has advised companies to protect their data as much as possible by implementing a two-step verification procedure. Staff should also use ‘three random words’ for their passwords, as this makes it harder for cyber criminals to hack into their accounts. 

NCSC also suggested employees avoid creating passwords that can be easily cracked, such as from significant dates, favourite sports team or book, or family or pet names.

‘Three random words’, however, makes passwords “that are ‘long enough’ and ‘strong enough’ for most purposes but which can also be remembered much more easily”. 

It is also important to protect yourself by taking out the right cover. Speak to our business insurance experts in Staffordshire for more advice on what protection you need for your enterprise.