Simple steps to protect your rural business from cyber threats

Digital technology is now part of the everyday running of most rural businesses. Alongside computers and smartphones, farms, holiday accommodation, rented property, shops and hospitality businesses increasingly use equipment that connects to the internet. These systems can make businesses more efficient, but they also need to be included in basic cyber-security arrangements.

Following recent news stories about the spate of hacking incidents on supermarket fridges across Europe, there is no better time to take action to protect your equipment.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Small Organisations Guide recommends a straightforward set of measures covering secure accounts, devices, software, backups and protection against scams.

Start by identifying the equipment connected to your business network or the internet. The NCSC describes connected devices broadly as equipment that interacts with, holds or processes an organisation's data. If in doubt, contact the equipment’s supplier.

For CLA members and rural land managers, this could include:

• Farms: printers, environmental sensors, CCTV and security cameras, livestock monitoring equipment, GPS-enabled or connected machinery e.g tractors, irrigation controls and other remotely managed systems
• Residential and holiday lets: smart heating controls, door-entry systems, CCTV, security alarms and other building management equipment
• Tourism and hospitality: online booking systems and tablets, Wi-Fi routers, smart TVs and video conferencing equipment, CCTV, electronic door locks and connected heating or lighting
• Retail: card payment equipment, tills, stock-management devices, printers, CCTV and Wi-Fi equipment

Government guidance warns that vulnerabilities in an inadequately secured device can provide a route into a wider business network.

Anyone can be affected so it’s important to protect your equipment using the following steps:

• Install security updates for computers, phones, tablets, routers and connected equipment when they become available. Where possible, enable automatic updates. The NCSC says keeping devices, software and apps up to date is one of the best ways of protecting against malware.
• Change default passwords supplied with equipment, avoid easily guessed passwords and do not reuse the same password across important accounts. Protect devices with a PIN, password, fingerprint or facial recognition where available.
• Back up important information. Consider what would happen if you suddenly lost access to booking information, tenancy records, accounts, customer details or other operational data. The NCSC recommends regular backups of important business information and making sure that those backups can be restored.
• Be alert to fraudulent messages. Emails, texts and calls can be used to obtain passwords, banking details or persuade staff to make fraudulent payments. Make sure employees know how to recognise and report suspicious approaches and have a separate procedure for checking unexpected requests involving payments or sensitive information.
• Plan for an incident. Decide in advance who should be contacted, which systems are essential to keeping the business operating, where backups are held and how you would communicate if your normal IT systems were unavailable. The NCSC provides specific Response and Recovery guidance for small and medium-sized businesses.

You may not need specialist IT expertise to improve your security. The NCSC's free Cyber Action Toolkit provides small organisations with practical actions that can be completed progressively.

Depending on the nature and size of your business, you may be interested Cyber Essentials, the government-recommended minimum cyber-security standard. It covers five areas: firewalls, secure configuration, security updates, user access and malware protection.