Cyberattacks are more serious risks for small businesses than they are for medium-sized businesses or large enterprise corporations. Our guide will walk you through the process of creating a comprehensive cybersecurity checklist for your small business.
The Critical Need for Cybersecurity in Today’s Small Businesses
With the rise in remote and hybrid work, cybercriminals have more opportunities to infiltrate company systems than ever before. Technology is also making it easier for hackers to create more sophisticated attacks. For example, some cybercriminals have begun using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create more convincing phishing emails and automatically send them en masse.
More sophisticated cyberattacks are happening more frequently, and they’re also becoming more costly. In 2023, the average cost of a data breach in the United States rose to $9.48 million dollars, a 0.4% increase from 2022. Small businesses are especially vulnerable to cyberattacks because they often lack the advanced security infrastructure that large enterprises have, making them an attractive target to malicious actors looking for an easy job.
To put it simply, small businesses can’t afford to deal with a serious cyberattack. Reinforcing your security posture with robust cybersecurity technologies and protocols is critical for surviving the rapidly evolving threat landscape — because a cyberattack is no longer an “if,” but a “when.”
Crafting Your Small Business Cybersecurity Checklist
Preventing cyberattacks is critical for keeping your business running. Before taking any other actions, lay the groundwork for cyber resilience with a thorough risk assessment — this evaluation will help you identify where the holes in your security posture are so you know exactly what issues you need to address.
Once you know where your vulnerabilities are and how well your existing IT resources address them, it’s time to take action. Some of the steps you may need to take include:
- Train your employees: With 74% of data breaches involving the human element, it’s critical to ensure your employees understand and follow cybersecurity best practices. Requiring your staff to complete two to three security awareness training sessions per year is an excellent way to reinforce the importance of cybersecurity tactics such as setting strong passwords and exercising caution while using the internet.
- Secure emails: Further reduce the risk of employees clicking on malicious links by implementing email protections like message encryption, antivirus software and spam filters.
- Establish an incident response plan: An internal incident response plan helps you quickly resolve an issue before it escalates, which is essential for business continuity. Using an industry-standard response framework like those from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) or the SysAdmin, Audit, Network and Security (SANS) will guide you through this process.
- Create a mobile device action plan: Even though many people use their smartphones to get work done, accessing company resources via unsecured public networks gives hackers an opportunity to steal your sensitive data. Require your employees to password-protect their devices, encrypt their mobile data and use a security app to prevent cyber hacks from impacting your organization.
- Restrict access and authority: Employees should only be able to access the data they need to get their work done, which is why each user needs their own separate account with unique access privileges and permissions. An identity and access management (IAM) solution can make it easier to implement these limitations.
- Install perimeter security: Firewalls and anti-malware solutions help protect your business from external threats, which is why requiring them on both on-premise and remote devices is essential.
- Use multi-factor authentication (MFA): Phishing-resistant MFA adds an extra layer of security to your passwords, ensuring users are who they say they are when they’re logging in. Typically, an MFA system will require users to provide a second verification factor after entering their password, such as a one-time code sent to their mobile phone or an answer to a security question.
- Implement data retention policies: Keeping too much data for too long can overwhelm your system, so creating a solid policy for storing and deleting specific types of information is critical for robust cybersecurity and data protection.
- Back up company data: Regularly backing up mission-critical data such as important documents, spreadsheets, databases, website data and accounting information can help you recover faster from disasters and potentially save you thousands.
The 5 C’s of Cybersecurity for Small Businesses
The following five considerations are essential components of any cybersecurity plan for small businesses:
- Change: The cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving, which is why businesses that keep up with cybersecurity trends and adapt accordingly have a better chance of minimizing damage from cyberattacks.
- Compliance: Simplifying compliance management for applicable government and industry regulations helps ensure you have the minimum required protections in place to protect your system and your customers from data breaches.
- Cost: Cost considerations include both the financial consequences of a data breach and the costs associated with implementing a robust security infrastructure. Although it may seem like just another budget item, investing in cybersecurity protections can help you avoid the devastating costs of a data breach.
- Continuity: A cyberattack can disrupt business operations for weeks at a time, especially if your company doesn’t have a thorough incident response plan in place. Proactively planning how to respond to cyberattacks will help you maintain business continuity in some capacity so you can minimize financial and reputational damage.
- Coverage: Covering all your assets — both physical and digital — is critical for a robust security posture. It can also help to invest in cybersecurity insurance coverage, as it can ease the financial strain of a breach.
Tailored Solutions for Small Business Cybersecurity
If you’re looking for a secure, robust IAM solution to protect your small business, you can count on The OptimalCloud by Optimal IdM.
With a convenient single sign-on feature allowing authorized users access to all company systems and applications, The OptimalCloud reduces the need for IT assistance and frequent password resets. You can also enable phishing-resistant MFA for enhanced network security.
Other advantages of switching to The OptimalCloud include:
- Scalability: The OptimalCloud can scale horizontally or vertically to meet the needs of your growing business.
- Seamless integration: The OptimalCloud integrates with our Virtual Identity Server to increase the value of your existing Microsoft environment. It’s also pre-integrated with popular applications, so you get fast one-click access to over 11,000 applications.
- Audit and compliance initiatives: The OptimalCloud provides complete identity as a service (IDaaS) functionality to help you achieve your audit and compliance goals.
Fortify Your Small Business With Optimal IdM
Our identity and access management solutions are fully managed services, meaning we handle all the small details for you. From installation and configuration to monitoring and maintenance, you can count on our team to keep your data secure and protect your system against attacks.
Choose a provider that will meet your business’s unique security needs. Get started today with a free 30-day trial.
