6 Steps to Take to Keep Your SMB Safe Online

6 Steps to Take to Keep Your SMB Safe Online

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In today’s world, both small and medium-sized businesses are favored targets of many cyber criminals simply because they know that, unlike larger enterprises, small businesses have minimal defense resources. They are also aware that small businesses hold and store financial and personal data every bit as much as larger businesses. With that said, the team here at CorCystems wants to ensure that though you may not have the financial means or even the bandwidth of many much larger companies, small business owners can still protect their business with managed SIEM monitoring, their customers and their employees from all types of cyber threats. There are a number of ways you can make your small or medium-sized business a whole lot more secure and a whole lot safer. Here are 6 ways the professionals here at CorCystems want to share with you.

Ways To Make Your Small Business More Secure and Safer

  • Assess and Analyze Your Risks – For starters, you should take an inventory of all your business practices, including the steps you are currently taking to secure all your devices, emails, internet services, networks, and the likes. Also, give focus to the steps you are taking to protect any and all data that you are collecting.
  • Monitor Your Threats and Cyber Attacks – Though you may not be as experienced in cybersecurity as you need to be, and are far from an expert in cybersecurity, you can still take effective steps to ensure the protection of your small business. It’s important to understand the type and number of cyber threats that are made on your company’s network. You need to be aware of the key threats that are made on your business such as phishing and spam. Being aware will help you to put in place practices, data back-ups, protocols, and even behavior patterns that can limit the risks to your company.
  • Provide Cyber Training to all Your Employees – It is every bit as important for your employees to understand appropriate cybersecurity protocols, as it is for business owners themselves. Basic cybersecurity hygiene practices such as keeping clean computers, backing up all work performed, effective password practices, avoiding suspicious links by not clicking on them, and recognizing unusual activity on your computer and reporting it to IT personnel are all elements of effective cyber training.
  • Create and Implement an Effective Cybersecurity Protocol – To help small business owners like yourself, the Federal Communications Commission has designed and created what is called the ‘Small Biz Cyber Planner’ that focuses on helping small businesses to identify, analyze and evaluate their existing cybersecurity status. This planner helps small business owners in their efforts to create an effective plan to protect their company from all types of cyber threats, risks, and attacks
  • Take Steps to Protect Your Clients and Customers – There are few very simple strategies you can engage in that will help you protect your small business from having to encounter dangerous data breaches that can turn out to be quite costly. These simple strategies are a surefire way of offering your clients and customers the peace of mind they need to know that all their personal information is safe and secure with you. You should begin by putting in place a privacy policy that summarizes the customer information that you gather as well as how you use it and where you ultimately store it. Next, give much attention to the actual personal data gathered about your customers and clients, where you are actually storing it, who is allowed access to it and what steps you are taking to protect it. Finally, you should only keep information about your clients and customers that you absolutely need and delete anything in excess.
  • Be Diligent About Reporting All Cyber Attacks – Acquaint yourself with the StaySafeOnline.org website that will help you to identify appropriate authorities in your area. Should your small business fall prey to a cyber-attack of any type, you will know exactly what authorities to report it to, and be sure you do just that!

IT Professionals You Can Trust

Here at CorCystems, we take great pride in our top of the line services and products we provide all our valued clients including our unparalleled cybersecurity services and our premier cybersecurity training for small businesses as well. If you are in need of either cybersecurity or training, then we are the team for you. To learn more about our services or to receive a quote, please reach out to us today at (203) 431-1341.