How to Protect Your Business from Cyberattacks

Does your business have a defense against cybercrimes? According to Fortinet’s 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report, Canada was hit by 12 billion cyberattacks in the first six months of 2025. The Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity ranks the top three forms of cyberattacks: 

• Ransomware — The most common cyberthreat in Canada. Criminals use malicious software to infect your computers, then encrypt, steal, or delete your data, and demand you pay a ransom to get it back.
• Phishing — A criminal tricks you into revealing your bank account details, personal data, or passwords. It often appears in a fraudulent email that seems trustworthy, e.g., it’s from your bank, a government official, or someone in your company.
• Malware — Malicious software designed to infiltrate or damage your systems, networks and computers/phones without you knowing.

Now here are: 

Seven ways to protect your business from cyberattacks 

1. Change your passwords: use complicated passwords and change them regularly. When a team member or employee leaves your company, make sure to update any passwords that only current members, licensees, or staff should know. 
2. If an email or text message feels wrong or looks suspicious, trust that feeling. Be wary of opening attachments and links in messages until you have verified the message is real and not malicious. You can protect your computers with anti-virus software from Bitdefender, Norton, McAfee, Sophos Home, or Malwarebytes.
3. We naturally place automatic trust in someone we already know. It’s sometimes worth questioning that trust, if a message feels out of the ordinary. For example, if someone you know wants you to buy them gift cards (a common email/text scam), check with them in person before you open your wallet.
4. On a regular basis, back up your data onto an external device like a hard drive; 
5. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in websites to steal data or infect site visitors with malware. So, update your computer’s (and phone’s) software packages regularly, preferably through automatic updates. On your website, manage access rights for every directory on the site.
6. Protect your website with adaptive security architecture, system isolation, and firewalls; and 
7. If you have a service provider, make sure there’s an effective security policy for the site, especially if hosting is shared on several hosted sites. 

For more information on cyberattacks and how to protect your business, clients, and data, see National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026 — Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. You can also see recent cyberattack Risk Reports from the Real Estate Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation.