Did you know over 60% of small businesses close shop within six months because of cyber-attacks and data breaches?
These frightening statistics indicate the growing need for employing smart, proactive measures to protect sensitive business data. Therefore, in this post, you’ll learn about five essential cybersecurity solutions and practices for business owners.
So, without further ado, let’s dive right into them.
Set Up Strict Access Management Policies and Measures
Unauthorized access is among the most common ways criminals get their hands on sensitive business data. From hackers to malicious insiders, anyone with the required credentials can steal anything they want, while your companies and employees remain blissfully unaware.
Here’s how you can prevent this from happening:
- Set up audit logs to track all activities in your workplace, from login time to applications used and data accessed;
- All employees should have dedicated access usernames and unique passwords. Moreover, they mustn’t share their credentials with anyone.
Safeguard Your Business Website with Essential Protocols and Encryption
If you run a business website to sell products or services, you most likely collect and save sensitive customer information, such as:
- Payment details (credit/debit card, eWallet, etc.;
- Email address
- Location, etc.
All this information (and more) is transmitted over the internet through servers, which are highly susceptible to breaches. Hence, you must protect your website by strengthening security with measures like:
- SSL certificates to move to encrypt site traffic and data;
- Download Surfshark VPN to hide your IP address and traffic;
- Adopt SOC2 to optimize cybersecurity compliance, etc.
Install a Powerful Cybersecurity Suite in All Workstations
Regardless of your business size or niche, you must proactively protect your devices and network infrastructure from harm. One of the best ways to do this is by installing a powerful cybersecurity suite to identify, contain, and eliminate malicious software, such as:
- Malware;
- Spyware;
- Ransomware;
- Adware;
- Trojan horses;
- Phishing or smishing attacks, etc.
Modern antivirus software offers other tools and solutions to improve security further, including powerful password managers, built-in VPNs, and safe browsing. However, purchasing a robust security solution is half the battle. You must actively update the software to ensure optimal performance.
Backup Your Business Data to the Cloud
Most modern businesses understand how vulnerable they are to cybersecurity attacks. Therefore, they prepare for the worst by actively backing up sensitive business data to the cloud.
So, even if an attack happens, they can use the backup to minimize disruptions and avoid succumbing to ransomware attacks designed to infiltrate, encrypt, and hold data for ransom.
Ideally, you should opt for a hybrid approach to combine cloud and local backups, ensuring multiple backups are on standby.
Regularly Offer Cybersecurity Training to Employees
No matter how powerful your security infrastructure is, you can’t ensure optimal performance if your employees don’t adhere to the best practices. Therefore, you must educate them regarding cyber attacks, train them to use common security tools and teach them to identify threats like phishing and other social engineering attacks.
By doing so, you can help them prevent and respond to attacks diligently. Hackers rely on the lack of awareness and human errors to infiltrate systems and carry out malicious deeds.
To curb these attacks, here are the most common training programs you can host:
- Basic security awareness;
- Phishing simulation exercises;
- Email security training;
- Password management training;
- Cloud and network security training, etc.
The Bottom Line
With cybersecurity threats constantly looming in the digital business landscape, you must take proactive measures to secure sensitive business data. The measures above are excellent to cover the basics. However, don’t stop there. Employ more solutions and adopt more security practices to minimize the risk of data breaches and attacks.
In cybersecurity, you need a little paranoia to be hyper-vigilant, considering what’s at stake, from your business reputation to finances and operational efficiency. You don’t want to compromise your business continuity and growth by not focusing on security management.
