How SMBs Can Improve Their Security

If somebody somehow happened to ask you who is impacted by security breaches the most, odds are good that your most memorable idea would be of large organizations. Maybe organizations like Yahoo or Facebook ring a bell – organizations that are immense and hold untold measures of confidential data. While accounts of global breaches frequently get the most press, much of the time it’s the Small-medium business (SMBs) that are most in danger. One of every three breaches includes SMBs, as a matter of fact. A study by Visa gauges that generally 95% of credit card data breaches found by them are from its smallest business clients. Yet, why would that be the situation? Why are SMBs at risk?

Why Small-Medium Businesses are at risk?

Contrary to Enterprise security which deposits substantial investment in cybersecurity specialists and programming, SMB security, or lack thereof, poses a risk to confidential data. SMBs are attractive targets for cybercriminals as they are often unaware of the vulnerabilities they possess or the steps needed to protect themselves. The lack of resources for investing in security services makes SMBs ideal for exploitation. Nonetheless, being a small to medium business does not mean you cannot arm both yourself and your employees with the tools needed for protection. There are several SMB security best practices that can easily be implemented in your company to improve online security. This article explains five simple ways to do so. To learn how to improve your SMBs’ online security, read on.

Understand the Risks

Knowing the threats that impact your industry can help you get ahead of the game in protecting yourself. Cybercrime has increased by 600% since the beginning of 2020 with 40% attacking small and medium businesses. The most common cyber-attacks SMBs face are ransomware, social engineering, and credential stuffing. Subsequent data breaches, on average, cost SMBs $110,000 per breach. For small businesses that cannot afford such a substantial loss of financial, legal, and reputational damage, these losses can result in permanently closing doors. By understanding the risks, SMBs can equip themselves with the knowledge, tools, and practices necessary to improve online privacy and security.

Perform Due Diligence

Take the time to ensure that your virus scans and other security protections are not only in place but also up to date. By updating all security protections, SMBs can minimize the potential risks to their online security to work confidently and securely. Following the three main principles of due diligence, small and medium businesses should identify and assess potential threats, prevent and mitigate the effects, and take accountability for the results. For example, performing an annual security audit, setting up a proper framework, like ISO 27001, and researching the security infrastructure of your SMB are all due diligence to improve online security.

Businesses that take a proactive approach to security have a greater chance of preventing loss and decreased costs associated with breaches. Why? If you spill less, the clean-up is easier.

Create a Security Policy

Creating a security policy helps you lay out your expectations for employees, including proper use of email, work devices and creating secure passwords. Security policies should address standards, baselines and procedures for all employees. For example, ensuring employees with company computers have updated anti-virus software, such as Norton, downloaded onto their devices to prevent viruses, attacks and/or vulnerabilities. As well, if your SMB is operating from a remote work environment, verify that employees are within the allocated region- if an employee decided to work from Hawaii without notice and your company is based in Canada, this could cause serious security violations.

A proper security policy outlines what threats exist to an SMB, how to handle situations as they occur, and how to proactively protect against them. Providing clear regulations helps everyone play by the rules.

Train your Employees 

Work with your employees to ensure they have the skills and knowledge they need to work confidently and securely. A report by McAfee suggested that 43% of data loss comes from people within the organization, primarily due to accidental incidents.  Employees should be provided with basic cybersecurity training to ensure they know how to prevent falling victim to social engineering attacks, such as phishing attempts, credential stuffing, or other human-element security threats. In addition, once a security policy has been established, employees should be expected to follow all best practices within the policy.

Training your employees goes beyond ensuring they have the knowledge to work securely, ensuring they have the skills and tools to do so is equally as important. 63% of SMB attacks were a result of stolen, weak, or default passwords set by employees. To improve online privacy and security, employees should create strong passwords- please, do not include your street name, birth date or family pet. In addition, two-factor authentication should be enrolled to secure login credentials; 2FA requires all employees to receive a unique code on a secondary device to be entered when logging in. Hackers may be able to penetrate passwords, however, without access to your secondary device or code, it is useless to them.

Hire Expert Help

Oftentimes, SMB owners are left responsible for managing the online security of their business – even when they do not have formal training. As a result, their online confidential information is susceptible to cyberattacks and breaches. Whether it’s a contractor, such as Analog 2 Digital Global Consulting Private Limited, get the help you need and protect your assets by hiring an expert.

 

Blog by: Priyanka Rana