Cybersecurity for small businesses is one topic many small business owners shy away from, but research has shown that small businesses account for about 43% of cyberattacks annually, with an average of $25,000 lost by SMBs.
And not only that, cybersecurity is now a critical requirement as a business driver, meaning that neglecting it will have a huge impact on your business success. Because good information security procedures are now associated with customer trust, service, business value, and opportunity.
Therefore, it’s not just about protecting data anymore. It’s about the overall success of the business.
One mistake small business owners make when it comes to cybersecurity is to assume that they are too small a target; that is, they assume that bad actors will have no interest in attacking them due to their business size.
Having such an ideology of enjoying security through obscurity makes it worse for small businesses, as it is important for every small business owner to remember, as noted by Kai Rasmus in his qualitative research analysis, that small and large businesses face similar cybersecurity challenges and that small businesses are also subjected to the same cybersecurity rules and regulations as larger companies.
Therefore, being small doesn’t serve as an excuse or a reason why your business hasn’t been attacked yet.
This article will look at ways to maintain a strong cybersecurity posture for businesses without the infrastructure, resources, or requirement to justify using the current, sometimes costly corporate cyber model.
Relevant Cybersecurity Tips For Employees
Cybersecurity for small business challenges: What is stopping small businesses from implementing cyber security?
Cybersecurity practitioners and information security scholars have stated that small enterprises are at greater risk of system compromise because they don’t know what to protect.
This inability for small business owners to identify cyber security needs for their businesses has made most of them vulnerable. This is why most small businesses today rely on security through obscurity as their main cybersecurity strategy.
This is simply them believing that by hiding their data or vulnerability then they will be safe or that they are too small to be targeted or waste effort on by attackers.
But that is the opposite of what is obtainable, as attackers have discovered that they stand to gain more by exploiting easily accessible vulnerabilities within the smaller, less well-protected businesses or organizations, from which they can also gain a foothold in a trusted system to attack their original target or big businesses.
Other reasons why small businesses find it difficult to implement cybersecurity include;
- Limited budgets
- The complicated nature of technologies
- Lack and cost of technical expertise
- Difficulty in understanding cybersecurity educational materials
- Lack of immediate results from their cybersecurity effort.
To support this argument, Darrell Eilts’s qualitative analysis findings suggested that small business decision makers are more likely to boost their ability to mitigate cyber threats when the appropriate technological tools are simple, technical competence is available, and cybersecurity instructional material is simple to understand.
He further noted that small business owners and managers also stated that cybersecurity readiness efforts are more reachable when the demands on their time do not divert their attention from business operations.
Also, Emma Osborn and Andrew Simpson claimed in their research paper that small enterprises are struggling with the complicated demands of risk assessment methods and how to incorporate cybersecurity guidance into their organizations.
In the following sections, we will discuss ways small businesses can boost their cyber security even with the little resources they have.
How to Approach Implementing Cyber Security for Small Businesses
As mentioned early, not knowing what to protect or should be protected is one reason most small businesses are vulnerable to cyber attacks. But on some occasions, this might be caused by the wrong attribution of value.
The TSO publication on Fundamentals of Adopting the NIST Cybersecurity Framework states that “The problem with cybersecurity is twofold: the first problem is one of perception; the second results from looking through the telescope incorrectly – in other words, it is a failure to see the whole.”
Instead of approaching cybersecurity from an enterprise level, most organizations relegate it to the IT department. Then they ask the wrong questions about cybersecurity—as if it were a piece of hardware or software—for example, “How much will this cost?”
The publication suggested that we need to change the mental model associated with cybersecurity from a technical challenge to one that considers cybersecurity to be essential to value production.
The best way to approach creating a different mental model is to ask different and relevant questions.
Ask questions that focus on creating and protecting value, such as;
- What is valuable to us?
- What is valuable to our stakeholders?
- How is that value protected?
- Are we prepared to respond when something compromises any aspect of value?
It is also important to note that threat actors attack people, processes, and technology. So, in order to implement cybersecurity effectively for your small business, your focus should be on protecting your business data and systems appropriately.
Having the above mentioned in mind and providing thorough answers to the questions asked. The next thing will be to evaluate other external requirements that are important to your business; these include legal, regulatory, and compliance requirements. Making sure your business is able to fulfill those requirements with the little resources available to your business is what our small business cybersecurity consultation service can help you with.
Contact us for your small business cybersecurity consultations
Once you have highlighted those, it will be important to assess cybersecurity risks to all your identified values and the critical assets that support them.
Then identify threats faced by small businesses like yours and their likelihood and impact.
After that, you can implement some security controls to mitigate the identified risk. For instance;
Preventative controls: This serves as a deterrent and a way to mitigate prospective threats. When an attack is launched on a system, these controls try to prevent breaches. These measures do not attempt to prevent the initial attack from occurring. Preventative controls can be applied in two ways: by following the principle of least privilege and providing security awareness training.
Remember that the most important factor in cybersecurity awareness is to make people aware of their responsibilities and roles in information technology. And it involves knowing how to protect business information and how to take reasonable steps for preventing data breaches.
It is important to note that data breaches are closely related to human behavior and a lack of rigorous cybersecurity training. A lack of cybersecurity education and training causes employees to circumvent and undermine the security safeguards put in place by the organization.
Preventative controls can help security teams acquire a full understanding of an attack that makes it past a network’s perimeter by highlighting any vulnerabilities in the network or the controls themselves. Such controls typically take the shape of security guidelines and regulations.
Detective controls: These are designed to detect attacks and breaches. These controls notify someone that an attack has occurred and, in some situations, prevent the attack from causing any additional damage. Monitoring and intrusion detection systems are examples of purely detective controls.
Anti-virus, intrusion prevention systems, and anti-malware solutions are examples of attack detection and prevention controls.
Detective controls differ from preventative controls in that they are more active types of security controls. Detective controls actively monitor technology and behavior, whereas preventative controls strive to limit behavior and mitigate the damage caused by attacks. Such controls take the shape of technological systems that detect dangers, both external and internal.
Corrective controls: this repair or restore an environment that has been damaged or become vulnerable.
These measures may include security patches, firmware upgrades, and data backups.
Corrective measures respond directly to system breaches and attacks. Corrective controls are proactive procedures used to address newly discovered vulnerabilities.
Insurance policies or catastrophe recovery sites serve as compensatory controls to offset this damage. Cyber insurance helps an organization recover financial losses, while a disaster recovery site enables a corporation to restart operations as soon as possible.
15 Cyber Security Tips for Small Businesses
1. Use Strong, Unique Passwords
Make sure all passwords are long, unique, and hard to guess. Use a password manager to help keep track. You can use an open-source password manager if you cannot afford enterprise ones.
2. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Use two or more verification steps for logging into important accounts, like passwords plus an OTP code that comes through an unphishable 2FA security like security keys and authenticator apps.
3. Keep Software Updated
Regularly update all software, including your operating system, IOT device firmwares, and apps, to fix security holes.
4. Train Employees on Cybersecurity
Teach your team how to spot phishing emails, fake notifications, fake financial deals, and avoid risky online behavior. Also educate employees about social engineering tactics, such as pretexting and baiting.
5. Use Firewalls and Antivirus Software
Install firewalls to block unauthorized access and antivirus software to detect and remove malware.
6. Backup Data Regularly
Automatically save copies of important data in different locations, like an external hard drive and the cloud.
7. Limit Access to Sensitive Information
Only give access to important data to employees who need it for their job.
8. Secure Your Wi-Fi
Use strong passwords for your Wi-Fi network and enable encryption to keep it safe. Make sure your Wi-Fi router is not using its default admin password.
9. Use Encryption
Encrypt sensitive data so that it is unreadable if intercepted or stolen.
10. Create an Incident Response Plan
Have a plan ready for how to respond to a cyber attack, including who to contact and what steps to take.
11. Monitor Network Activity
Regularly check for unusual activity on your network that could indicate a security breach. You can use tools like Wireshark if you understand traffic log analysis or intrusion detection tools like Snort.
12. Conduct Security Tests
Regularly test your systems to find and fix security weaknesses. You can use open-source vulnerability scanners as a start.
13. Secure Mobile Devices
Protect smartphones and tablets with passwords, security software, and the ability to wipe data remotely.
14. Secure Physical Equipment
Keep servers, routers, and other important equipment in locked, secure areas. Also, have a way to keep track of your physical infrastructure.
15. Work with cybersecurity experts
Consider hiring a professional to help manage and improve your business’s cybersecurity. We are simply an email away from helping you out with your business cybersecurity.
