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Cybersecurity concerns have become a growing issue for all types of business. However, while the potential financial implications of undergoing a cyber attack are hard for businesses to ignore, the perceived costs necessary to adequately prepare for them aren’t any easier to digest.
Still, keeping your smaller business safe doesn’t mean having to stretch or break your budget. Below, we’ve listed some cost-effective strategies that all organizations can put in place to significantly improve their security readiness while helping to minimize their digital attack surface.
User credentials, whether structured for internal team members or external partners, is your first line of defense when protecting your company assets. Unfortunately, many companies fail to implement simple best practices that help to strengthen this critical security barrier.
Most cloud-service platforms and software solutions now enable businesses to utilize multi-factor authentication as a standard form of login security. Be sure to mandate this level of protection on all applicable solutions for your business, as it can significantly minimize the likelihood of credentials becoming compromised.
Password managers are a highly affordable solution that businesses can invest in to help manage, monitor, and simplify the use of highly secured password credentials for everyone in the organization. These tools also notify you when it’s time to update passwords after a certain time and when the same credentials are being used across multiple platforms, which can present certain vulnerabilities.
Most business software or hosted solutions are regularly updated by manufacturers. However, in most cases, the businesses that use them are responsible for receiving and implementing these updates. If you’re not careful, missing these critical updates or ignoring them altogether can cause significant security issues.
Most software or firmware updates offer a blend of functionality and security improvements. This is why it’s critical to ensure you regularly download and install these updates.
The great thing is that most operating systems or applications offer you the ability to install these updates as they’re pushed through automatically. You’ll want to take advantage of these features whenever possible. Depending on the scale of your company infrastructure, many affordable solutions can help you manage all your applications in one place, monitoring for applicable security updates and ensuring they stay regularly updated for you so nothing is missed.
While not all businesses may view employee training as a form of security hardening for their business, the reality is, any investments of time and resources you can make in this area will more than often bring you substantial returns.
Your employees are the first line of defense when it comes to confronting modern-day cyber-attacks. Whether trying to avoid email phishing schemes or knowing which websites should and shouldn’t be accessed, the more information your employees have regarding cyber threats and the best practices they should follow, the less likely the business will suffer severe consequences.
When establishing business infrastructure, most organizations will begin establishing wireless networks to allow seamless connectivity between workstations and other WiFi-enabled devices around the office. It’s important to make sure these networks – whether private or guest – are adequately secured.
Depending on the type of hardware being used to establish company networks, businesses will have a variety of ways they can improve their security without needed to make further investments.
For example, most WiFi routers will come with the ability to choose various encryption protocols to be used. The latest standard of WiFi encryption is WPA3 protection. Enable this feature if able, otherwise revert to WPA2 with AES encryption protocols.
Like most hardware and software, many modern routers come with the ability to automatically install new firmware updates as they become available. Another protection you can implement is to disable SSID broadcasting to make it less visibility to individuals outside of the organization scanning for potential business targets.
For many smaller businesses, creating a management budget for various cybersecurity initiatives can be a challenge. Often, managing all security initiatives in-house can lead to a number of high upfront implementation costs that can be difficult to justify.
However, rather than feeling like your organization needs to compromise its security readiness based on budget constraints, working with an MSP (Managed Service Provider) can be a much more cost-effective solution for ensuring you’re getting all of the security your business needs.
Working with an MSP eliminates the need to manage a security team in-house or make long-term investments in comprehensive security tools and solutions. Rather, you’re able to outsource all of your business’s security needs to highly trained IT and security professionals on a subscription basis.
MSP relationships give businesses 24/7 access to security monitoring and support while having a highly scalable solution that grows with the business.
Not all businesses have the same risk profiles, which means that not every form of cybersecurity investment may be necessary for your organization. Another thing to consider is that simply relying on free cybersecurity tools isn’t a wise course to take. Many times, these solutions are rarely kept up-to-date and are often a primary target of cyber attackers, considering that they typically have many exploitable vulnerabilities.
Instead of taking this approach, getting a cybersecurity assessment can be an invaluable investment to help you pinpoint exactly where your budget and priorities should be. Cybersecurity assessments provide you with a clear roadmap you can follow to outline all of the security areas that are most relevant to “your business” and document specific objectives to focus on.
At LDD consulting, we’re experts at working with businesses of all sizes to help them plan and execute their cybersecurity strategies. Contact us today for a free consultation and learn how we can help you implement affordable cybersecurity strategies that can protect your business long-term.