Cybersecurity is important throughout the year, but October is special because it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month. What better way to celebrate than by going over some small business cybersecurity solutions? With these tips, you can strengthen your company’s overall security.
Small Business Cybersecurity Tips
As a small or medium-sized organization, you may think your company won’t draw the attention of a cybercriminal. However, small businesses are targeted almost as frequently as their larger competitors, so it’s necessary to implement solutions that protect your network. Here are a few steps you can follow to stay secure.
Conduct a Security Assessment
Do you know the strengths and weaknesses of your cybersecurity? Understanding where your IT infrastructure is vulnerable allows you to apply specific solutions that fix those security flaws. The best way to figure out the capabilities of your network is to perform a security risk assessment. While you can do this internally, it’s often better to get the help of a small business cybersecurity provider that can take a comprehensive look at your technology and security policies.
Keep Your Systems Updated
Cyberthreats are constantly evolving to find ways around your system’s security measures. Frequent updates and patches remove any exploits a cyberthreat may take advantage of. As such, you should make sure every device in your infrastructure is updated and patched to the latest version.
Back Up Everything
It’s a good rule of thumb to store your data in more than one place, especially anything your business can’t afford to lose. Imagine if your company was storing all of its critical information in a single hard drive and that device experienced hardware failure. How would the loss of that data affect your operations? Consider investing in cloud storage options to ensure business continuity.
Create Strong Passwords
Creating strong passwords can be inconvenient, but it’s necessary for the protection of the various accounts you work with throughout the day. Too often, employees rely on weak or reused passwords because they’re easy to remember. However, these passwords are easy to crack. A good solution is to invest in a password management tool. This takes the hassle out of password creation by generating and storing strong passwords so you don’t have to remember them.
Train Your Employees
Human error is a security vulnerability that every business must consider. In fact, 52% of businesses believe their employees are their biggest cybersecurity weakness, according to Kaspersky. Cybersecurity training ensures that everyone at your organization understands the risks your company faces. Additionally, it teaches your employees how to avoid threats and what to do after a cyberattack.
Use a Virtual Private Network
Whenever you have to work on a network outside of your organization, you should be using a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN gives the user online privacy and anonymity by creating a private network from a public internet connection. When activated, the VPN masks the user’s internet protocol (IP) address so their online actions are virtually untraceable, making it harder for hackers to gain access to sensitive data.
Never Leave Equipment Out in the Open
When we talk about small business cybersecurity, the focus tends to be purely on the software side. However, cybersecurity refers to your hardware as well. The last thing you want is for your network to be compromised because an employee’s laptop was stolen. Communicate to your team that once they’re done with work, they need to store their device in a safe location.
Activate Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an extra layer of protection that uses multiple verification steps to certify that the user is who they say they are. It’s a security tool used in conjunction with a password and username. MFA is centered around the idea that there’s a piece of information only you would know or have access to.
What Companies Need Cybersecurity?
It doesn’t matter what size your company is or what industry you operate in—any business that uses technology needs cybersecurity. For the best IT security solutions for small and mid-sized companies, turn to Americom. We offer a wide range of services to protect your network and help you operate more efficiently.
Contact us to learn more.
