Studies have shown that nearly 60% of small businesses will fail within a year of experiencing a cyber attack. There are a few reasons for this. For one thing, cyber attacks can significantly slow down or even halt operations—particularly ransomware attacks that effectively take all of the digital components of your business hostage until you pay.
It’s also very cost-prohibitive to recover your data. You either have to pay exorbitant fees for a professional response to help you recover from the attack, or you give in to the demands of the criminal, pay what they ask, and hope that they won’t hit you up again—which they usually do.
Prevention is the best response. In this article, we take a look at how a cautious approach to cybersecurity can help save your business enormous amounts of time and money.
Risk Overview
Before we get into how you can avoid serious cybersecurity threats, let’s first take a look at what issues are really out there.
Social Engineering / Phishing Schemes
Phishing schemes, which fall under the wider umbrella of social engineering scams, are designed to trick you into taking an action you normally wouldn’t.
They often begin with an email or a fraudulent website that appears legitimate—something that prompts individuals or business owners to hand over login credentials, credit card information, or other sensitive data.
These tricks work because they’re convincing. The email or website might look like it came from a trusted brand or even an authoritative source like the IRS.
Phishing messages often include an alarming call to action—perhaps insinuating that you owe money or need to cancel an order before your account is charged.
Ransomware
Ransomware can appear at the other end of a phishing scheme. Unlike a simple data breach, ransomware takes your entire digital system hostage. These attacks have been known to devastate small businesses, rendering them functionless until the issue is resolved.
Imagine, for example, trying to run your business without access to your CRM. How many core functions would you lose? Put another way—would you be able to do anything at all?
Many small businesses aren’t just managing information that keeps them operationally solvent; they’re also holding on to valuable customer data that could cost them their reputation if compromised—credit card information, and in some cases, even Social Security numbers or private health details.
Keeping Yourself Safe
Computers make things fast, efficient, reliable, but they’re also a major source of vulnerability.
The more we rely on our digital infrastructure as business owners, the more important it becomes to keep it safe. Over the next few headings, we’ll take a look at simple things you can do to ensure the safety of your data.
Good Password Hygiene
One of the most effective ways to improve your business’s cybersecurity is to implement better password protection systems.
Many business owners are naturally tempted into very simple, easily remembered passwords that they then use for absolutely everything. While password123 or something of that ilk is easy to remember, it’s also easy to guess.
You should prioritize difficult passwords that rely on multi-factor identification. You might think, but that’ll make it harder for me to get on my computer.
And probably you’re right, there will be some early frustrations and an efficiency tax of an additional 20 to 30 seconds every time you sign in. Yes, that does add up, but it’s much less costly than losing access to your digital systems for six months.
Data Protection
In business, there is a 3-2-1 recommendation for managing important data. The idea is that you have — three copies of the data, which include the original and two backup sources.
Two different media types, including external, cloud-based, or NAS plus cloud. One off-site copy, which would be protected against fire, flood, theft, ransomware, etc.
Having all of your core information thoroughly backed up is another tedious consideration, but one that will spare you major headaches in the long run.
Continous Learning
It’s also important to adopt an attitude of continuous learning for both you and your employees. Know what risks are out there and how to navigate them successfully.
Regular training designed to develop awareness can be done in 20–30 minute bursts once or twice a month and will go a long way toward not only ensuring that everyone on your team retains a fresh understanding of what risks are out there, but also that they understand how seriously you take cybersecurity.
Until you’ve developed a structure to support cybersecurity as a core business concern, it will most likely be considered a soft suggestion by employees who mean well but have a wide range of responsibilities that they have to balance.
Conclusion
If all of this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. As a business owner, you know that any time you integrate something into your practices the right way, it does take a lot of front-end work.
You wind up paying for training, suffering through learning curves, and also just learning lots of new information yourself.
Most business owners can’t neatly fit something like that into their schedule. If that’s you, consider hiring a consultant.
Yes, it will, of course, add to the expense of the process, but remember that in business, money is a tool there to unlock speed.
If you are dragging your feet, you’re risking the health of your business every day. A good cybersecurity consultant can help connect you with all of the things we’ve described in this article using custom-built systems designed specifically for your business. It’s fast, it’s effective, and it could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.
