5 Tips To Build A Strong Cybersecurity Strategy For Your Small Business

Small business leaders often think that online hackers and scammers have bigger fish to fry, like global enterprises and the bigger brands in the industry, but in reality, your small business is at risk of a cyber-attack just as much as the big guys. There is always a possibility that someone will try to enter your data center to extract valuable customer and business information, which is why ensuring application and network security should be one of your top priorities.

One of the common cybersecurity mistakes that business leaders make is not creating a strong strategy to effectively handle, store, and protect sensitive business data. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the key tips that you need to use in order to build a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy for your small business.

Begin by educating your employees

More often than not, data leaks happen because one of your employees has given out sensitive information. This often happens unwittingly, as online scammers specialize in social engineering and coercion, making your employees relinquish data without realizing that they are not communicating with their co-workers, clients, or partners. For a proficient scammer, it’s easy to deceive an employee into thinking that they are, for example, exchanging emails with one of the company’s partners, and they will often use the same email structure, wording, and logos to make the emails seem authentic.

To prevent these data leaks, you have to teach your employees about cybersecurity, especially if you are using small business data analytics to collect and collate vast amounts of data that must not fall into the wrong hands. Be sure to organize comprehensive cybersecurity training courses hosted by trained IT professionals.

Upgrade your firewalls

Every small business needs to have a strong firewall in place to keep the network safe and protect every device from viruses, malware, and cyber-attacks in general. Now, while you might think that having a firewall on every device is enough, in reality, you need a compressive network security solution that combines software and hardware firewalls that will filter and restrict traffic, provide granular control and traffic inspection, and ensure complete network security for all devices at the same time.

For example, integrating a hardware firewall is a great way to elevate network security and ensure top-level data protection, while having a physical device between your network and the web acts as a gatekeeper that will keep your employees and your devices safe in the online world. Be sure to update and optimize your software firewall regularly as well to patch up any security holes.

Introduce multi-factor authentication

No matter the size of your company, chances are that you and your employees are using numerous devices and applications on a daily basis to ensure efficiency and productivity. If not, then make sure to focus on digital transformation in order to stay relevant in the modern digital market. Now, even though technology makes our lives easier and our work more productive, it’s safe to say that every device and application you use is a potential back door into your data center.

This is why it’s important to integrate two-factor or even multi-factor authentication for all accounts that you and your employees use. Multi-factor authentication will prevent anyone from gaining access to an account without entering their password, verifying their phone number, and without answering a unique security question – which is an effective way to improve small business security.

Monitor and control your business network

To keep your network safe and secure, you have to retain full control at all times. You can do this by simply integrating a web filtering solution that will give you a bird’s eye view of your entire network, and allow you to maximize bandwidth usage, restrict access to spammy and dodgy websites, and implement numerous security protocols to keep your network and your employees safe. This can be especially beneficial to Ecommerce stores that have a lot of website traffic on a daily basis and are vulnerable from various malware infections.

Improve password strength and security

Every weak password in your company is a potential entryway into your system and data stores, which is why improving password creation, management, and storage should be one of your priorities as well. Instead of letting your employees come up with their own passwords for the various devices and apps they use, be sure to implement a reliable password management tool that will generate strong passwords and store them in a safe online location. This will ensure that hackers and scammers won’t be able to gain access into any account.

Wrapping up

Small business owners tend to make the mistake of putting cybersecurity low on their list of priorities, but the fact of the matter is that elevating online security should be your primary concern in an increasingly dangerous digital world. Use these solutions to create a strong cybersecurity strategy and safeguard your business as a whole.