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An interesting occurrence happened this week… I received a call from a colleague who was in the middle of trying to work out how someone else could be remotely controlling his mouse right in front of his eyes, surfing a website attempting to make a purchase.

Like me, my colleague runs his own small business, so doesn’t have access to the technology support many larger companies have. I was chuffed I was first on his list of “who do I call?” and thankfully the failsafe move of ‘turn everything off’ stopped the attack.

Spyware, phishing, trojans, malware, viruses – they are all terms we hear and read about, but who really knows how most of it works, and how to stop it? I have no idea how you can remotely find someone’s computer connected to the internet, and take over control. Many do though – and it raises the question ‘how do we technology simpletons (without access to IT departments) stop this happening to us?’

I am by no means an expert, but at least think I have an idea of the basics to keep yourself a little bit safer (touch wood I have had no problems to date!).

Further to increasing protection, the next concern was if there was any data lost? As a small business owner how do you ensure business continuity, and ensure everything is backed up sufficiently?  If an attack was to occur (or even just a hard drive fail), and data was lost, how quickly can you be back up on your feet and running again. These days data is everything, and losing it could spell disaster!

It certainly raises some interesting points and concerns, and definitely made me re-evaluate my security and back-up strategy!