For most businesses, SMBs and large corporate firms alike, cybersecurity concerns remain the same, at least for the most part. It’s a common myth, especially among small business owners and startup founders, that cybersecurity has to be about big budgets and doesn’t concern SMBs. Data shows otherwise. There is enough evidence that proves that hackers and scammers have attacked small businesses as frequently, and often more, primarily because these companies don’t spend enough effort and money on cybersecurity. Also, many of these business owners and management teams believe wrongly that cybersecurity is just about compliance. In this post, we are sharing some basic and easy steps to protect your business from hack attempts and cybercriminals.
- Use firewalls. As simple as it sounds, placing your networked devices behind firewalls can be really handy for preventing brute force attacks and common scams.
- Try network segmentation. For the unversed, network segmentation works like a firebreak. You are simply storing your IT resources on different subnetworks, so compromise on one doesn’t impact the entire network.
- Find a good antimalware suite. Malware, ransomware, and phishing remain some of the key business cybersecurity concerns, and you can avoid these threats by opting for a reliable and known antimalware suite. There are also many antivirus and anti-ransomware suites out there.
- Update your operating systems. Operating systems, software, firmware, and other software programs should be updated on a regular basis, as soon as security patches are made available. These patches basically intend to fix some of the existing flaws and other bugs within a program.
- Protect passwords. Password protection can be done in many ways. At the basic level, ask your employees to use a password protection tool, and also, consider changing passwords frequently. Multifactor authentication, use of lockout feature are other ways to prevent password hacks.
- Restrict access. Make sure that you have restricted access to your IT resources and networks. This is a key factor that has to be considered for long-term cybersecurity goals. There are some amazing identity & access management suites that are ideal for such requirements.
- Don’t miss on physical protection. Protecting hardware, devices, IT rooms, servers, and other physical resources, is as important. If you haven’t installed IP cameras and advanced video surveillance as yet, consider investing in that.
Not to forget, where needed, get cybersecurity teams and services on board to take your protection & security measures to the next level.