If you have only recently set up your business, you might have decided to hold off scrutinising its cyber security efforts while you wait for your budget to expand. However, this strategy can be perilous – because 43% of cyber attacks focus on small businesses, as Entrepreneur contributor Lucas Miller warns.
Even if your company is long-established, though, it could still have become overly set in its ways – and too reliant on the following security measures that all firms should have axed long ago.
Failing to create a system security plan
Otherwise known in shorthand as an SSP, a system security plan would summarise all the measures your business takes to protect its data. These measures will touch on hardware, software, training methods and how your company would react if a security breach were indeed reported.
While spending time drawing up an SSP can be financially costly, leaving out that task altogether can, in the long run, prove even more so – helping to demonstrate why your firm should not cut corners.
Using outdated software
As your company probably uses a wide range of software, from desktop and mobile operating systems to productivity apps, your team might not always be quick enough to refresh all this software as updates for it are released.
However, if this is indeed the case, your business should dramatically change tack – as hackers often look closely at software updates to discern what security holes are left open by software some businesses are not promptly patching up.
Not replacing outdated hardware
Given how easily software updates can be downloaded and installed on various desktop and mobile devices, it would be a pity if any devices your workforce uses would not actually have access to regular software updates.
This can happen if the hardware itself was acquired quite a while ago or, as is the case with many Android devices, the hardware has never exactly been in line for a long run of software updates.
Hosting software on-site rather than in the cloud
Traditionally, your organisation might have invested in a string of servers that would be put in place at your own corporate premises. However, these days, many business-oriented pieces of software are instead stored in the cloud, which would save you money on maintaining conventional servers.
Then there’s cloud disaster recovery – where, as SmallBizDaily explains, you could back up data ready for you to recover later if you need to replace on-site hardware that has incurred damage.
Not being careful who has access to what
ComputerWeekly.com cites another risk to your business: that of identity theft. This can result from a data breach where personal – and personally sensitive – information about specific people falls into the perpetrator’s hands.
To guard against such instances of data theft, you could keep different types of data separate to limit opportunities that would be available to cyber criminals. You could, for example, enact a zero trust architecture, like Wandera’s market-leading solution to restrict what apps any given member of your company’s employee base would be able to access.
