Cybersecurity continues to be a hot topic for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). It’s not uncommon for smaller businesses to believe that because of their size, “there isn’t much to steal,” so cybercriminals will simply not target them. This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. The 2017 State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Business Report conducted annually by the Ponemon Institute clearly debunks these ideas, showing that 61 percent of smaller businesses experienced a cyberattack and 54 percent reported data breaches involving sensitive information in 2017.
The reality of this situation is that cybersecurity criminals are very much aware of the flawed assumptions and the false sense of security residing within smaller businesses and actively seek to exploit them. It is easier for an attacker to compromise a smaller business that has limited budget and resources dedicated to cybersecurity than it is for the attacker to compromise a large enterprise with multiple layers of security effectively implemented and fully funded.
Smaller businesses obviously cannot match the spending on cybersecurity technologies or staff a full team of cybersecurity experts like their larger counterparts. Still, there are ways for smaller businesses to compensate for these budgetary and resource limitations to implement an effective comprehensive cybersecurity defense.
1. Do not tackle it solo.
Small businesses thrive by focusing on doing what they do best and when it comes to cybersecurity, this fact doesn’t change. Unless you’re a small business specifically focused on providing cybersecurity services it is recommended you seek out professional assistance.
2. Document your cybersecurity policies.
Most successful small businesses are extremely agile operating by word of mouth and intuitional knowledge, much of which is undocumented. Cybersecurity is one area where it is essential to document processes and policies and in many cases required by regulatory authorities to meet governance requirements.
The above is an excerpt. To read more cybersecurity practices, click HERE to read the full article in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Tools for Success magazine. You can also pick up a print copy of the magazine at a Progress Bank location near you. Click for a complete list of LOCATIONS.
Jeremy Conway is the Chief Technology Officer at MAD Security, a published author and renowned public speaker. With more than 16 years of experiences in the information security field, he is recognized as an industry expert and innovator and played a vital role in securing some of the largest networks in the world for customers such as NASA, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Defense
