Do you think your company is immune to cyber attacks?
Just because a company is small doesn’t mean its business is immune to cyberattacks. Owners of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) may feel that hackers go for big companies, but more and more cybercriminals view SMBs as naive and often as easy marks. This is especially true for SMBs who may employ 10 people or less and lack the resources to focus on IT security.
We’ve listed a few things for SMBs to think about in order to get started in security:
- Understand the value of the company’s data – Think about what’s important. A retailer wants to protect credit card data, while a doctor’s office has vital patient and financial information to protect.
- Examine how the data is protected – Once you’ve determined what data is important, think about how to protect the data. Who needs to have access to the data? If there was a breach, what would you do?
- Patch your systems – Most attacks exploit known vulnerabilities. Develop processes for consistent software updates.
- Educate the staff – Investing in ongoing training for your team will likely deliver a better return than the latest security software ever will. Educating users greatly reduces the risk of vulnerabilities caused by user error. Make sure all staff members have access to proper training, such as remembering to log on and off their workstation, and how to watch for malicious email and other phishing scams. Educate people in the simple rules of password security and what data assets are important to the company.
- Collaborate with service providers – Too many small companies will scrimp on IT services, but a provider with a team that knows how to secure a small network can save your business and be worth every penny. Have someone in place who can teach the company good security habits – and be on call in a crisis.