10 years ago, the idea of cybersecurity was something that many people thought was left to big businesses and banks. However, we have all seen the stories of how smaller businesses are becoming targets of various digital attacks throughout Florida and the rest of the country. There is definitely a need to secure your business today, even if it is a small business.
These attacks range in severity from unauthorized account access and website attacks, to ransomware on your business’s machines. All of these attacks are enough to drive a small business straight into bankruptcy.
The idea that you are too small and insignificant is no longer a valid excuse for neglecting your digital security. Cyber criminals do not share the perspective of who’s big or small. Rather, they just see targets, and will go after those who have made it easy. Combat these criminals with these six tips that will instantly improve your digital security and make you more resilient against those with nefarious intent.
To Secure Your Business, Find the Weak Points
Every business has a weak point, but they may differ based on different business models. In the end, however, the most common weak point for any business is cashflow. If something happens to disrupt your cashflow, you’re going to face major problems, potentially even facing bankruptcy or worse.
To protect against attacks on your cashflow, you have to identify what puts it most at risk. For some businesses, it’s their database of clients and proprietary information. For others, it might be their eCommerce store.
The trick is to find those areas that if something happened, your business would be in significant trouble. Once you have those in mind, now you can evaluate the weak points in your digital security protocols, and shore them up. Start at the most critical areas, and work back to the least until everything provides a more secure environment.
Don’t Fall into the Password Trap
Passwords are a necessary evil that we all have, and in many cases we’re annoyed by the number of places that require them. However, passwords are the first line of defense in any security system. Too many individuals and businesses fall victim to taking the easy way around passwords rather than approaching them from a security standpoint.
Think about how many people use “1234” or “abcd” as their passwords. The other common trap is using the same password for everything from systems’ access to vendor portals, or using the same password for personal and business uses. For businesses, some use the same password for all employees because it’s easier than issuing and maintaining secure passwords for everyone.
While it seems easier to use the same password between people, and between various systems, this creates a major headache if you ever have a security breach. Once your password is discovered, then your entire business is at risk.
Working with a digital security agency like Security Ox makes setting up and maintaining your system easy. Plan to issue user-specific access to your various systems, which can be set up in different user-level profiles. Ensure that every employee uses a unique password, even if it’s a system-assigned password, to ensure it’s not used elsewhere.
Finally, make doubly sure that any administrative access to your system is unique, and changes regularly. Use of a secure password generator will help ensure the password is not tied to anything personal that could be guessed by someone seeking access.
Consider Your Travel Habits
Traveling is a very necessary part for many businesses, from client or vendor visits to trade shows and conferences. In many cases, whoever finds themselves traveling also finds themselves working from public access WiFi to check email at minimum, if not accessing critical company systems and assets.
As convenient as public WiFi is to continuing critical operations, it also poses a significant security risk. Unsecured public WiFi is easy for even moderate level hackers to breach, collecting information from anyone on the system. Think about all the conference center, hotel, and airport access points used during a typical trip. These are also prime places for people seeking to harvest sensitive information because of the volume of people who pass through.
It’s unreasonable to think you can avoid using these kinds of services, especially if traveling is part of your lifestyle or business model. However, you can make using these systems more secure through a VPN, or virtual private network. Some larger businesses choose to create a VPN for their employees to use when working remotely from any location.
However, for the smaller businesses, there are many third-party VPN services available for a reasonable subscription fee. These range from independent companies like perimeter 81 and Express VPN, to add-ons for security suites like Norton.
Tend to Your Digital Hygiene
Just like you need to shower and brush your teeth, your business’s digital presence needs some periodic hygiene. Think about all the different places you have created a password for, and then never logged into again. What about all the different subscriptions you have, both free and paid?
Chances are, your passwords are in so many places you couldn’t begin to list them all if you tried. This is where periodic digital hygiene comes into play by getting rid of things you don’t use and deleting those accounts.
The first step of good digital hygiene is managing your passwords well, so see the second point above. Also, take time to slowly go through your email and all the newsletters you get that you don’t read. Start to unsubscribe and delete accounts at those sites.
Given the volume of passwords you’ll need, consider using a secure password manager. These are an independent app or program that stores and populates your passwords when needed. Some of them will even suggest unique, secure passwords for when it’s time to change or when you’re registering a new account.
Understand Your Fallible Team
People are by far the biggest risk to your business’s digital security. When it comes to security protocols, people tend to be lazy, thinking nothing could happen to them. However, it’s this laziness, inattentiveness, or apathy that create the main issues you might face when trying to secure your business.
Be the enforcer of security protocols for your business by being the example. Ensure everyone is using unique login credentials with user-level defined access. Make sure your team is using a secure password manager, not what comes built into their Internet browser. Finally, provide regular training about current digital security threats, both to your business and to your employees individually.
Depend on Secure Cloud Services
Regardless of whether you have people remotely working for your business, cloud services are a substantial part of good digital security. Many small businesses think that keeping their files locally on a hard drive or internal server is the most secure way to store their company’s data. However, what happens if that machine experiences a hard drive failure or there’s physical damage due to a catastrophe like a hurricane or fire?
Cloud services protect your company against these inevitable machine failures through redundant systems. They also maintain strict security protocols, both digitally and physically, to protect your company’s information. The same level of security would be cost prohibitive for most businesses to implement on their own
Get help developing the right digital security protocols for your Florida business. Call to schedule a consultation with the experts at Security Ox today.
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