Protecting your small business from cybersecurity risks
U.S. Congressional Small Business Committee found that 71 percent of cyber-attacks happened at businesses with less than 100 employees. Even more concerning, the 2016 State of SMB CyberSecurity Report by Ponemon and @Keeper found that 50 percent of SMBs have had a security breach in the past year.
While large businesses have more data for cyber thieves to steal, small businesses have the least secure network due to lack of time, budget, and security best practices in place. A cybersecurity attack on a small business can cripple such a business and put your IT systems including CRM systems, accounting software, email applications and other critical software out of service for many days. Also, small businesses will spend 10x more to recover from a security breach.
How can small business avoid becoming a victim of a cyber attack?
- Add a firewall
- Create a cybersecurity policy document and keep it updated
- Build education and awareness for all your employees and contractors
- Enable strong/safe password practices
- Backup all your data to the cloud regularly
- Use MFA (multi-factor authentication)
- Protect from phishing attacks using anti-malware software
- Create a mobile device policy and enforce the same
