Simply understanding the important cybersecurity tips for small businesses can prevent an incredible amount of damage. Lack of cybersecurity education, weak passwords, and poor employee practices are among the top causes of ransomware.
Take this scenario: Your employee innocently clicks a link within an email and the next thing you know, your business files are being held hostage by a cyber attacker. It only takes a few seconds to cause potentially irrevocable damage to your systems, and hackers are always looking for new victims.
That’s why a multilayered approach to ransomware that includes business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) is so important. BCDR enables organizations to resume normal operations quickly if security measures fail. We’ve gathered our best advice on how to proactively protect your business from cyberattacks. Now is the time to prepare and make sure you are doing the most to protect your business, reputation, and customer information from malicious cyber attacks.
What can you do to protect your business from cyber criminals? Don’t know where to start? We’re providing you with 9 Cybersecurity Tips Every Business Should Follow.
Top 9 Cybersecurity Tips for Small Businesses
A massive global shift to remote working environments has created an open season for cybercriminals. No business—big or small—is safe. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) seemingly have a target on their backs, so strengthening your company’s security posture is essential right now. There are ways to protect business data against cyber attacks.
Here are nine tips to help your business boost resilience to cyber attacks:
1. Conduct a security risk assessment
Understand the most critical threats to your business with a cyber security risk assessment, like system failures, natural disasters as well as malicious human actions and determine the impact they may have on your company.
2. Train your employees
Conduct employee awareness training across your entire workforce to educate users on common scams and avoidance techniques. Also, because cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, make sure your training curriculum is relevant and updated frequently.
3. Use multiple layers of protection
Implement a password policy that requires strong passwords and monitor your employee accounts for breach intel through dark web monitoring. Deploy firewall, VPN, and EDR technologies to ensure your network and endpoints are not vulnerable to attacks. Extras: Consider mandatory multi-factor authentication, ongoing network monitoring, and hard drive encryption.
4. Keep software up to date
Unpatched or out-of-date software will allow some kind of threat to breach your security. Cybercriminals exploit software vulnerabilities using a variety of tactics to gain access to computers and data. Managed service providers (MSPs) can automate this for businesses just like yours, with a remote monitoring and management tool. Don’t forget to keep your mobile phones up to date as well.
5. Create straightforward cybersecurity policies
Write and distribute a clear set of rules and instructions on cybersecurity practices for employees. This will vary from business to business but may include policies on social media use, bring your own device (BYOD), authentication requirements, and more.
6. Back up your data
Daily (or more frequent) backups are a requirement to recover from data corruption or loss resulting from security breaches. Consider using a data protection tool with your MSP’s help that takes incremental backups of data periodically throughout the day to prevent data loss.
7. Enable uptime
Choose a powerful data protection solution that enables the “instant recovery” of data and applications. In fact, 92% of MSPs report that clients with business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) products in place are less likely to experience significant downtime from ransomware and are back up and running quickly. Application downtime can significantly impact a business’s ability to generate revenue.
8. Know where your data resides
The more places data exists, the more likely it is that unauthorized individuals will be able to access it. Use data discovery tools to find and appropriately secure data along with business-class Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications that allow for corporate control of data.
9. Control access to computers
Each access point poses an individual risk, so limit employee access to specific data they need to perform their jobs. Plus, administrative privileges should only be given to trusted staff.
Wrapping Up – Understand these Top Cybersecurity Tips for Small Businesses
Understanding important cyber security tips for small businesses is the easiest way to protect your business and your customers. Review these tips and always be proactive about your cybersecurity. Partnering with a managed service provider will alleviate your cybersecurity concerns. Working with an MSP like Kirkham IronTech will give you access to quality advice on what technologies you need to protect your organization in the fight against cybercrime. To learn more about our services, contact us today. Have any IT or cybersecurity questions? Let us know!
Tom Kirkham brings more than three decades of software design, network administration, and cybersecurity knowledge to organizations around the country. During his career, Tom has received multiple software design awards and founded other acclaimed technology businesses.
