The First Steps To Securing Your Small Business Online

If you own a small business, then you know the true value of some of your electronic and digital assets. Your customer information and sensitive business data cannot be leaked, or else your goals could be set back months. A small business could even go under if they are the victim of a large enough cyberattack. You need to protect yourself, your employees and your computers. Fortunately, there are plenty of options available to you, and it isn’t difficult to set up a good system.

Yet sometimes a wealth of information can seem overwhelming. If you haven’t really created a strategy yet, then you need to start with a framework that you can build upon. Focusing on the threats of today only wastes time in the long run. You need to develop habits and an outlook that are conductive to cybersecurity so that you can respond when new threats appear over time. Start with the following steps so that you can focus on growing your business.

Create an IT Policy

The security of your systems and hardware is by default something you shouldn’t spend most of your time on. What you need to worry about instead is your employees. Human talent makes all the difference in any business, and in cybersecurity, it is human error that results in most incidents and data breaches. You need a uniform policy regarding technology for your company, and it’s recommended that you consider some of the following as a base to work from:

• Make detailed guidelines regarding who has access to specific programs and devices. Your computer should be yours and yours alone, and your accounts should rarely be shared. As the owner, you have to deal with sensitive information and communications that don’t need to be shared with anyone else. A disgruntled employee can do a lot of damage on their way out.
• Make sure that all verification measures are strong and that passwords are changed at least every couple of months. Specify more detailed measures depending on what you use.
• If your employees deal with customers online, create some guidelines as to behavior and proper procedure regarding these interactions. Err on the side of caution, and be clear about rules regarding giving out information online.
• It isn’t a good idea to allow personal devices to be used for work purposes, even if it means you have to provide devices for employees. You have less control over personal devices, and you don’t want a personal mistake to threaten your business.

Use the Best Tools

Even though your employees and your own skills are where you should focus most of your efforts, you still need to equip everyone with the right tools so they can do their jobs effectively and safely. Consider the following tips and tools:

• Every device used for your business should have a security suite installed. No exceptions. That security suite should be constantly running and updated often. Make sure that it isn’t a free or excessively cheap one, as you get what you pay for.
• Employees that travel or occasionally work on a public network should be equipped with a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which will connect the user to an offsite secure server. This will protect a device on any network and allow one to hide their IP address, allowing access to blocked sites (consumers use it to access Netflix all the time) and services.
• Out of the general digital tools you use for your business, check to see if there are any security options and if you feel they meet your needs. Then check to see what competing products are out there. If there are known vulnerabilities in the products you are using to run your business, it is better to switch sooner rather than later.
• Whether it is a cloud service or a series of external hard drives, find some way to regularly back up your business data and keep it safe. If you have a smaller amount of data that isn’t used often, an external hard drive is your safest bet. Otherwise, for the sake of convenience, you’ll likely have to pick out a good cloud service. Just make sure that you set proper guidelines and settings for it.

Train Properly and Train Often

Once you have everything else set up and a general plan of action, make sure that your employees know what is going on. Have a training day or session where you go through all of the cybersecurity measures and habits to be implemented. Follow up on this, and take notes about which employees might be struggling. Don’t discourage them, but instead find the root of the problem. Be persistent until the issue is resolved. Explain the importance of your cybersecurity plan and how the company suffers in the event of a breach.

After the initial training period, make sure that you do a refresher every few months in order to keep strategies fresh and deal with new problems. Emails regarding immediate threats might be helpful, but they are no substitute for dedicate time and effort.

Have a Response Plan

No matter how well you think you can prepare, the chance always remains that your business could become the victim of a cyberattack. In this situation, you need to remain calm and put out the fire immediately. This means that you should have a response plan in place and the tools to implement it. Consider the following:

• Be prepared to wipe some data and start your systems up from your backup files. Flushing the system isn’t always necessary, but if your systems get corrupted by potent malware, trying to just get it out could take days of fruitless effort. During this time, hackers could be siphoning off even more sensitive information.
• Don’t try to hide what happened if the cyberattack goes public. Contact affected customers and/or immediately and apologize for the situation. Even if it costs you, make sure that they are taken care of and secure.
• Should a cyberattack occur, change all of your account verification measures immediately. Even if the accounts seem unrelated, it is a measure that will make everyone feel safer and remove some of the danger caused by the interconnectivity of the current business world.
• Be sure to find the root of the problem and change security practices immediately. Some hackers like to come back for more after a successful attack, thinking their target weak.

As business becomes more digitally focused, cybersecurity is more important now than it ever has before. Don’t become one of the companies you hear about on the news and focus on success instead. Once you have a framework and do your research, you will be more than able to tackle the challenges ahead.

Do you have any additional tips for your fellow readers? Are you a business owner who has set up a cybersecurity strategy for their business? We’d love to hear what you think, so please leave a comment below or join in the discussion in the ( mhaskeganesh blogspot)