For Entrepreneurs, Cybersecurity Is Now More Important Than Ever

Many novice entrepreneurs fall into a trap where they believe that since they run a small business, their risk of cyberattacks and data breaches is not as high as compared with that of a larger company. But this couldn’t be more wrong.

Although large company data breaches, hacks, and cyberattacks make the news more often, it’s actually small businesses that tend to have the highest risk because of their lack of resources for keeping systems secure and the misguided belief that only big companies are at risk.

One of the best things that you can do when it comes to cybersecurity for your small business is to outsource your IT to a professional company with more experience. The cost of outsourcing IT is often less when compared with hiring an in-house team and, therefore, a more optimal option for small businesses with limited resources. Impreza IT offers IT support to small businesses and will be able to help you put the right practices and policies in place to protect your business and customer data.

Another big mistake that many small business owners make is thinking that it’s the job of the IT support team to make sure that data is protected. However, cybersecurity is everybody’s job from the lowest-paid employee to the CEO. So as a company owner you want to make sure that your employees are regularly given the training to help them recognize the signs of a potential breach, what to do if they suspect a threat or an attack, and how to determine a phishing email and what to do if they get one.

It’s also a must to keep your systems protected with good anti-virus and anti-malware software. However, it’s not just important to have the software – you will need to ensure that it stays updated as well. Anti-virus software must be kept running on the latest version, as it is regularly updated to ensure that users remain protected from the latest methods used by cybercriminals, who are constantly coming up with new ways to bypass security systems. If your anti-virus software is running on an older version, it will not be as effective in keeping you safe and protected and should be updated as soon as possible.

Once you have a strong cybersecurity system in place, it’s a wise idea to test it and see how easy it would be for somebody to hack. For this, you can use the services of an ethical hacker who will attempt to hack into your system with your permission, in order to find out if there are any weaknesses that need to be addressed. This will give you a clear picture of just how strong your data protection systems are and will allow you to come up with a relevant plan to strengthen it in any areas needed.

This article was written by Sophia Anderson and originally appeared on Your Coffee Break.