Luck Isn’t a Cybersecurity Strategy

Many small business owners will temper their investments into IT security because they are of the notion that because their businesses are so small, they can’t be affected by hackers. We get it: prioritizing IT security is more expensive than you like and that money can justifiably be used elsewhere for more gain. The problem is that small businesses can and do get targeted by hackers. In fact, over 25 percent of all data breaches happen to small businesses. In today’s cyberthreat climate, your business can’t rely on luck. Let’s take a look at what you can invest in to protect your network and infrastructure.

Data Backup and Recovery

Data backup is a critical process that every business that depends on their IT needs to have. If data is the lifeblood of your business, then you need to protect it. Your business most assuredly has data that, if lost, would put you back. Why risk it when a solution for this problem is a simple fix? You need data backup.

Today, you need more than just a simple backup to a hard drive. With the BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery) your business not only gets a network attached backup that is updated incrementally (so you don’t lose anything), it also pushes a copy of that data to the cloud. So, regardless of what happens to your business, you will still have your data to fall back on. 

Security Software

If your business simply doesn’t have the capital for large security investments, it can still manage to mitigate most threats with security software. Antivirus, spam protection, firewalls, and more are readily available and affordable. Protecting your information at its source with consistently updated security software is a great way to cover your bases without having to spend a lot of money. 

Plan How You Will Protect Your Business

There are a lot of security solutions out there that the modern small business can use to mitigate the threats that face them, but you need to have a plan. Here are a few strategies that will work to protect your business:

Physical Security

Today, cybercrime is a big deal, but the physical security of your business and its assets has to be a consideration from the day you put out your shingle. Today, many affordable digital options are effective for protecting your business’ physical security. With the digital nature of many of these physical security solutions, some businesses now combine their IT and physical security initiatives into a comprehensive security strategy.  Here are some of the best options for the small business:

• Security Cameras – Rapidly improving security camera systems safeguard your business and give a great deterrent. 
• Access Control Systems – Determining who can access what is a great way to keep unwanted people out of your most sensitive areas.
• IoT – Smart devices can now reinforce your business’ physical security. 

No matter what strategies and solutions you chose to implement, you will want to make sure that they are deployed diligently and maintained regularly so that they don’t become more of a hindrance than a benefit. 

Train Everybody

One place where small businesses can make headway on their security efforts is to train their entire staff. They should understand the importance of security and how they can help the effort by being conscientious about the following issues:

• Phishing – Many of the threats that really hurt businesses are the result of successful phishing messages. Employees will have to know how to identify a phishing message and understand what to do when one is detected.
• Password Hygiene – Password security issues cause companies to lose data all the time. Your staff will need to know how to most effectively secure company resources with their password choices.
• Physical Security Best Practices – There are times that the best cybersecurity is good physical security. Workers need to be aware that keeping credentials and other sensitive information away from wandering eyes is a good strategy. 

The more you invest in training your staff for the eventuality that they may encounter some type of security problem, the more apt they are to react in a way that will help the business eliminate that threat. 

Keep Testing It

It is extremely important that every security strategy is always a work in progress. Threats shift, situations change, but if you have a workforce that is up to the challenge of threat mitigation, it will go a long way toward keeping your business running effectively. 

If you would like to learn more about security solutions to help your small business keep its assets and resources secure--and reduce your business’ reliance on luck--call the IT experts at k_Street Consulting, LLC today at (202) 640-2737.