How to Protect Your Small Business from Data Breaches

Hearing about cyber attacks on large corporate giants like Google, Target, Sony, Anthem, UCLA Health System, Starbucks, and Ashley Madison among others, you probably think you have nothing to worry about. As the owner of a small business or a mom-and-pop store in an average-sized town where everyone knows each other, you might think that hackers have no interest in you. If this is really you, take a hard look at these statistics.

Small Businesses are as Vulnerable to Cybercrime as Large Companies

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, small businesses are the targets of 60% of cybercrime and data breaches. Only 14% of business owners are confident that they can safely avert any hacking attempts. And, 48% of information leak incidents are the result of deliberate and vicious attacks, not human or system errors. Here’s the most worrying statistic of all. At least 60% of businesses are likely to shut down after becoming victims of cyber attacks.

Are you wondering what can hackers possibly steal from you? If you accept customer credit cards to receive payments and keep records of the data they share with you, then yes, you do have something really valuable that cyber criminals might be interested in. Your employees probably share their social security information with you for receiving paychecks, or you might partner with other businesses to source products or sell them. Check the graph below that clearly indicates how small businesses have enough information to become targets of data breaches.

Source: SmallBizTrends

Ready to Take Data Breaches Seriously? Here’s the First Wise Move

Invest in cyber security insurance. In case your company becomes the victim of a cyberattack, it could end up being liable in a lawsuit that your customers or partnering businesses bring against you. You could end up paying large sums in damages that could eventually wipe out your business. Discuss the threat of data breaches with your insurance provider and ask about the protection you should buy. Secure the company against legal costs and expenses arising from the interruption in your operations, managing the crisis, monitoring digital systems, and reputation damage.

Consult an Expert IT Team and Institute Preventive Measures

Invite a team of expert IT personnel to evaluate your digital systems and advise you on the preventive measures you need to take against possible data breaches. To begin with, hold a workshop for all your employees where they’ll receive detailed instructions on how to safely use and manage the information they have access to. You can also set up mandatory protocols that everyone must follow. For instance:

Often the simplest strategy that works is using a complicated password that contains a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Ensure that your workers change passwords at regular intervals of say, every 8 weeks. You can also think about assigning passwords so they don’t inadvertently use the names of loved ones and dates special for them.
Restrict access to sensitive information on a strict need-to-know basis. Give out customer details to only those employees that absolutely need to use information to provide services and deliver products. The fewer people have the information, the less likely it is to get leaked.
Talk to your employees about the dangers of opening emails from unknown senders and visiting websites with unfamiliar URLs especially when they’re working on company equipment. Also, warn them about opening email attachments if they aren’t sure of the contents.
Many companies choose to adopt the economical BYOD policy by way of which employees can use their own devices for work, at home or in the office premises. A good move for protection against data breaches is to invest in refurbished laptops, cellphones, tablets, and any other devices workers may need and assign it to them. You can get your IT team to install the necessary antivirus protection against cyber attacks and examine the gadgets from time to time to identify any weak spots.
Get your IT team to install apps so that employees can use the devices for company work only. You’ll have a better chance of tracking security breaches in case they occur.
Advise your employees to come forward and inform you right away if any devices you assign to them are stolen or lost. You can take the necessary steps to protect against the loss of data if you’re aware of the possibility that it can fall in the wrong hands.
Each time employees leave your service after retiring or being fired, make sure you retain the devices you assigned to them. You can also take any preventive measures against data breaches like changing passwords to protect the company. It will surprise you to know that 55% of cybercrimes are traced back to disgruntled employee or errors made when using company systems.

Protect Your Workplace Against Cybercrime

Your IT team will likely offer these recommendations to protect your company from data breaches:

Secure your Wi-Fi system with the necessary codes and encryptions. Make sure to have a complicated password that you change from at regular intervals. Without this protection, cyber criminals can access and break into your digital systems from outside your office premises.
Firewalls in your hardware and software systems are effective protection against data breaches. Your IT team can advise you best on the optimum firewall depending on the kind of company operations.
Use Virtual Data Rooms (VDR) to store sensitive information such as legal paperwork, taxation documents, financial records, and intellectual property, among others. VDRs work like online strongholds that hackers cannot access.

Data breaches, cyber attacks, and hacking are very real threats that every smart business owner should be aware of. Keep in mind that no company is immune to threats and you must take all the necessary steps to protect yourself.

As cyber security expert and business manager at Training 2000, Sarah Green says, “Small businesses may feel that they aren’t likely to be a target due to their size and that hackers couldn’t possibly be interested in what they do – but in reality the exact opposite is true. Hackers prey on the knowledge that small businesses tend to have lower defenses than larger organizations, usually due to lack of financial and human resources. By their very nature, thriving small businesses are innovative and niche, which again is very attractive to the bad guys who may be interested in customer data and intellectual property and know exactly how to pick out the weak targets.”

Be warned!

How to Protect Your Small Business from Data Breaches