9 Cybersecurity Best Practices for Your Small Business
Cyberattacks cause billions of dollars in business losses every year. Because smaller firms have limited resources, they’re especially vulnerable to these threats and the financial, reputational, and legal damage that can result. But even with a modest IT budget, you can take crucial steps to improve your business’s cybersecurity. Follow these best practices to help stave off security concerns.
1. Have Robust Security Software
Help protect your business’s systems and data with reputable antivirus, anti-malware, and firewall solutions. Enable automatic updates to ensure you have the latest protection.
2. Back Up Business Data
Regularly back up your critical business data, ideally with a trusted cloud storage provider. Test backups periodically to ensure you can quickly recover from a data loss.
3. Create a Companywide Password Policy
Require employees to create complex passwords of at least 15 characters with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. If your system is able to support long passwords, try implementing pass-phrases such as "Han and Luke shot down 4 tie fighters!" Passwords should be changed regularly.
4. Enable Multifactor Authentication
By implementing multifactor authentication, your business can help prevent unauthorized access to company devices and accounts by requiring a second verification factor to log in (such as a code sent to the user’s phone).
5. Secure Your Mobile Devices
If you provide smartphones, tablets, or laptops to employees, ensure they’re secured with strong passwords and mobile device management (MDM) software. This software allows your company to remotely manage a device and wipe sensitive company data if lost or stolen.
6. Address Wi-Fi Weaknesses
Change the default password on your router and use strong encryption such as WPA3. Businesses open to the public – such as stores, restaurants, and medical practices – should create a separate guest network to keep visitors off their internal network.
7. Limit Employee Access
To minimize the risk of data breaches, follow the principle of least privilege: Only let employees access the data and systems they need to do their specific jobs.
8. Boost Employee Awareness
Educate your team about common threats like phishing emails and business email compromise (BEC) schemes. Teach staff to spot suspicious emails, and reinforce the importance of verifying communications before complying with requests.
9. Use a Strategy to Guide Your Cybersecurity Journey
Good cybersecurity is about adding new safeguards over time. Use a tool like the BBB's 5 step approach to guide your decisions about what security practices to implement over time.
Strong cybersecurity measures are critical in today’s highly connected business world. If your budget allows, consider hiring an outside cybersecurity specialist to help you implement these measures effectively. Along with following these best practices, stay informed about the latest risks and conduct regular cybersecurity audits to ensure your small business is equipped to prevent or quickly recover from a cyber incident.