Small businesses often make the big mistake of assuming that hackers and cybercriminals are not interested in their data and resources. Studies reveal that small businesses and brands across different industries have suffered security breaches, often because they were never aggressive about proactive cybersecurity. In most cases, hackers managed to hack vulnerability that already existed within a system. This post is dedicated to proactive cybersecurity and everything that small businesses can do in limited budgets.
Train your people
Employees on the frontline of ensuring cybersecurity. Owing to the existing global health crisis, more businesses have remote teams and employees who are on extended WFH plans. As such, ensuring that employees are aware of the cybersecurity threats and concerns is important. For instance, have you tried phishing simulations with your teams? What about training on social engineering? You need a team of professionals with detailed understanding of cybersecurity concerns.
Focus on access and rights
Within an organization, every employee may have to deal with multiple resources at a time. As such, it is extremely important to have a system that allows managing these access rights. In other words, restrict access where possible, but more importantly, find a simplified way of revoking, adding, updating, and removing access rights.
Use MFA wherever possible
Multifactor authentication is necessary for better cybersecurity. Apart from password protection, it is wise to add a second or third layer of security, which can be in form of security questions, OTPS, or sharing other information. Even if a hacker manages to get a password, they cannot still bypass the existing cybersecurity perimeters.
Protect all networked devices
All devices that are connected to a network are vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. Placing devices behind firewalls and using antimalware and antivirus solutions are great steps for proactive security. Many antimalware suites have been designed to detect and remove malicious files, keeping business needs in mind.
Data back-ups are a must
Many companies are still taking data breaches for granted, assuming that they don’t have enough information for hackers to steal. Data back-ups are a must, not just for recovery, but also to prevent the consequences of a ransomware attack. Backups can be scheduled on a periodic basis as needed.
Finally, ensure that your company has an incident response plan, which is where reactive cybersecurity becomes important. Despite best efforts, things can go wrong, and it makes sense to have a plan for managing any cybersecurity incident or breach.