Know the best cybersecurity strategies for small businesses; starting a small business is an exciting time. Three lattes, a flurry of meetings and clients, the novel feeling of knowing you’re doing something, and the rewards of being your own boss and living your dreams are countless.
6 Best Cybersecurity Strategies for Small Businesses
But what also comes with it is loads of responsibilities, ranging from creating content for your marketing campaigns to filing quarterly taxes. And one responsibility that often falls off entrepreneurs’ radars is cybersecurity; especially when talking about tiny businesses with limited budgets and resources.
Let’s say you have a website where people come to buy cryptocurrency. There are chances they may purchase cryptocurrency directly, through a broker, or buy crypto with a credit card. Or have come to just convert cryptocurrency into their desired fiat currency. If a cybersecurity threat arises here, the hacker can harm your business and steal your customers’ credit card information.
So if you don’t think you need to worry about cybersecurity yet (or ever), please know it’s vital to protect your business from data breaches, hackers, and other cyber threats before they happen. Doing so could mean the difference between remaining in business or going under after an attack hits.
Cybersecurity Strategies for Small Businesses
Use Website Firewall Services
Website firewalls are a type of web security software that helps protect your website from attacks. They monitor for malicious or unwanted traffic and block it, which can help keep your site secure. You can also use website firewalls to enforce browser security rules like the ones listed below:
- Browsers will not allow JavaScript or Flash content to run on pages that are not SSL encrypted with HTTPS.
- Browsers will only load images from servers specifically whitelisted by their owner (you). So, this makes it harder for an attacker to change imagery on your site without permission.
Limit Access to Administrator Accounts
We’ve said a lot about how to secure your company’s networks and digital assets. Now, let’s talk about the people who should be using them.
First things first: Don’t use the same password for admin and user accounts. So, this is especially true if you’re using an easy-to-remember password for all of your employees’ accounts, and you probably are if you’re not taking steps to ensure that they use strong passwords themselves. If one person’s account gets hacked by an attacker, he or she can easily access other employees’ accounts too.
Second: Limit access to administrator accounts to as few people as possible (ideally just one person). So, that way, even if someone gains access to an admin account by hacking into it or guessing its password; they won’t have access to everything else on the network because other people only have limited permissions in their user accounts.
Use Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is often cited as one of the most effective cybersecurity strategies for small businesses. It works by requiring a second form of identification from you in order to log into your account or verify the information before granting access, such as by sending a code via text message or entering it into a physical key fob.
This type of security system helps prevent malicious actors from accessing your accounts even if they have stolen or guessed your password because now they need that second form of identification in addition to knowing the original password. So, for example, if someone steals your username and password but cannot get past two-factor authentication, then they don’t have full access to the account. This ensures that no matter what other precautions you take against cyberattacks—whether through antivirus software or firewalls—your data will remain safe under this system.
How do I set up two-factor authentication?
There are multiple ways to set up two-factor authentication depending on how secure you want your system to be: using external apps, generating codes with an authenticator app like Google Authenticator (available on both Android and iOS), sending codes via text messages when logging in using one of these authenticator apps at home, setting up a physical key fob connected directly to your computer’s USB port that generates codes every few seconds after inserting it into this port; setting up biometric sensors like fingerprint readers on laptops; so only those who have been verified through their fingerprints can use them; etc.
Change Default Passwords on Equipment and Networks
Therefore, this is a simple but effective way to protect your account. If you are using devices or networks, be sure to change the default password before using them. Most people don’t know this, but it’s easy to find default passwords online. So if you don’t change your equipment’s defaults, someone else could easily access it and steal information or cause other problems with it.
So, it may sound scary at first, but with the help of a password manager and/or generator; changing a device password is very easy. Just be sure not to use something that’s too obvious—that would defeat the whole purpose!
Regularly change all your passwords for small business cybersecurity
Regularly changing your passwords is a must for protecting your business from hackers. The reason? Your computer’s memory can be read by a hacker, who then uses the information to guess your password. As long as you’re using the same password for multiple accounts and devices, that person can easily access all of them.
It’s important to change passwords on a regular basis as well; if you don’t, it becomes easier for someone else to do so later on. To avoid this happening in the first place, use strong passwords with letters (upper and lower case), numbers, symbols, and spaces between words.
So, you may also want to consider using an app like 1Password or LastPass that allows users to make changes across different sites at once instead of manually logging in to each one individually when updating credentials via email verification codes sent through text messages or phone calls, which only work so well since not everyone has reliable service these days anyway!
Use Multiple Layers of Security
Protecting a small business can require different approaches than protecting a large enterprise. The latter has more resources, both monetary and personnel-wise available to spend on cybersecurity, increasing the likelihood of success in preventing cyberattacks. However, as a small business, you can take some additional measures as well.
Using multiple layers of security is one of them. This means using two or more separate types of protection (such as antivirus software, firewalls, and encryption) to help protect your network against attacks. In addition, implementing different kinds of security measures ensures that if one layer fails, others will still be able to provide protection against potential threats.
In Conclusion
Cybersecurity is a critical threat to your business and can have devastating consequences. It is important to have a plan for dealing with security breaches and other cyber threats. Therefore, the best way to stay ahead of the times is to act proactively.
Take steps now so that you can prepare for what’s next down the road.
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