November 21, 2025
As a business owner, you’d like to think that everyone who interacts with your business would have honest intentions. Alas, while that might be true for the vast majority of people, there’s always a threat that someone might intentionally do your business harm. Crime costs UK businesses billions of pounds a year, and not only that, but it can also erode employee morale and customer trust.
It’s easy to overlook the importance of taking criminal threats seriously. As with individuals, businesses tend to think that it won’t happen to them. Rather than play the risky hope-it-doesn’t-happen game, it’s much better to take a proactive approach to safeguarding your business against criminal threats. In this post, we’ll run through a few effective strategies that can help give your business a strong line of defence.
Even the most determined of criminals would think twice about illegally entering a property if they thought it was a good chance that there would be video evidence of what they’re doing. CCTV cameras are generally thought of as being useful for identifying criminals who have targeted a building, but they’re actually almost just as good at deterring crime. A good CCTV camera paired with external lighting will increase the chances of a would-be criminal being seen, which then decreases the chances they’ll actually go through with whatever plan they had.
CCTV cameras do a reasonably good job at deterring crime, but they’re not perfect. If a criminal decides to proceed even after they’ve seen a camera, then the crime will likely take place. At that point, you’d need to rely on CCTV footage to retrieve your stolen goods, and research suggests that’s unlikely to be effective. As such, for high-risk businesses, it can be more effective to hire a security company like Zed Security to provide static security guards. In-person guards function as a much better deterrent than CCTV cameras, and can also provide intervention if a crime does take place.
Many businesses worry about the in-person criminal threats to their business, but they should also be concerned with cybercrime. In the UK alone, cybercrime results in business losses of more than £27 billion per year. Unlike with physical crime, it can be difficult to prevent a criminal from attempting to access your business’s sensitive data. However, you can ensure that they’re not successful. Investing in strong IT security measures can help keep your business safe. Given the complexity and importance of modern IT protection, it’s recommended to hire a specialist company to provide this service for you, rather than attempting to do it yourself.
Finally, while no business expects its employees to intentionally cause them harm, the fact remains that internal crime remains an issue. Excessively monitoring or controlling employees can damage morale and trust, so the better solution is to simply perform background checks on potential recruits to ensure that you’re bringing a trustworthy employee on board in the first place.
While CCTV cameras and good lighting are effective deterrents, they might not stop a determined criminal. For businesses at higher risk, a security guard provides a much stronger defence and can intervene during an incident, offering a level of protection cameras cannot.
Both are critically important for any modern business. While you need to protect your physical premises from break-ins, cybercrime costs UK businesses billions each year. A complete security strategy from a provider like Online Business Startup would address both physical and digital vulnerabilities.
The most proactive way to prevent internal crime is to perform thorough background checks on potential employees before you hire them. This helps ensure you are building a trustworthy team from the very beginning, reducing risk significantly.
Given the complexity of modern cyber threats, it is highly recommended to hire a specialist IT security company. They have the specific expertise to implement strong measures that effectively protect your sensitive business data, a task that can be difficult to manage on your own.
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