If you have plenty of Internet bandwidth available, backing up online can be the most secure way to protect your data against disasters such as a house fire that destroys everything on the premises. sends your files (usually automatically) to a far-off location, removing any risk of loss from physical theft, fire, or flood at your business. Onthe other hand, some online, cloud-based services have been victimized by security breaches. That risk is probably tolerable for most of us, but if you work with highly sensitive information such as customer credit-card data, you might be best served by backing up this information locally and securing at an offsite location, such as a safe deposit box.

Another common--and oft-ignored--tip is to install antimalware software on all of your business's PCs and keep it up to date.

This measure isn't terribly onerous if you're dealing with a single PC, but things can get complicated and expensive if you're trying to safeguard a small-business network. Any number of paid and free single-computer security solutions are available. If you have more than a few computers, you can save money by opting for a small-business security suite package. Some of these packages are no more than a bundle of licenses for the individual suite, each of which must be installed and maintained separately. Others offer a central management console for pushing updates out to users' PCs and receiving notifications about threats found on the network. Shop around to determine the approach that works better for you.