There is a common understanding that small items or things go unnoticed. You can see this concept to many theories but not in business management. This is why big and small business invests in security measures like SSL certificates.
Why Small Business Security is Essential
Due to the rampant development of technology and along with the ever-expanding nature of the internet, business organizations with an online presence need to take security measures.
As the internet unlocks multiple avenues to expanding operations and procuring more consumers, it also opens the door to cyberattacks.
Businesses of any size need to ensure that they’re fully secured so that they can maintain their customer’s trust. Cybersecurity increases consumer loyalty as well.
It is equally important for a small, medium or large organization to invest equally in cybersecurity.
According to an article published by Kaspersky, at least 22% of cyber-attacks are targeted at small enterprises. Disregarding cybersecurity puts your clients and business in danger.
Some problems that can arise are gaining employee information, internal information, etc.
Why is Small Business under Threat from Cyber Attacks?
Small Businesses are more susceptible to cyber-attacks. This fact holds because apart from the basic security requirement it is easy for a hacker to infiltrate a small, uncomplicated security system as opposed to the tight and complicated online infrastructures that large organizations create.
According to reports from Verizon close to 43% of small businesses are targeted for data breaches. This data also suggests that within six months of a cyber-attack at least 66% of business will stop being operational.
This is because the amount of money lost through cyber-attacks at a very nascent stage has detrimental aftershocks. But why are small businesses so vulnerable?
As time has evolved, hackers have also become aware that consumers are becoming careful with their information.
Here are a few reasons why small organizations become easy targets:
- Sometimes when a business just begins their journey, they may not have sufficient staff or hire inexperienced staff. If the personnel employed to make the online infrastructure safer are unable to do so, then cyberattacks can take place. Small businesses often have a lesser number of people to contain a cyberattack as well.
- Big organizations establish themselves with a certain allure that can get the employees to fill positions that are concerned with cybersecurity. In small organizations, it is extremely difficult to fill positions related to cybersecurity and often the organization has unchecked access points. This makes small organizations very alluring to hackers.
- Since new businesses are still setting up, apart from the basic security, it is likely to have many loopholes or limited protection. This makes it easy for hackers to procure important data from consumers.
- Again, small businesses ignore website security like SSL certificate. However, it is a matter of few hours to install it on the server. You can choose from many brands like Comodo, Global Sign, RapidSSL, etc. while keeping site’s requirement in mind. For example, Comodo positive ssl wildcard, GlobalSign SSL certificate, RapidSSL certificate are few in-demand certificates.
Even though email spam has existed for a very long time, according to another report by Verizon, 94% of cyber-attacks are caused due to malware through emails.
As technology evolves so do cyber-attacks, therefore businesses need to invest in effective small business security measures.
Steps to Counteract or Enforce Cyber Security:
Cyber security is a real concern. The information that hackers get can often be misused for criminal activity. Consumers entrust small organizations with safeguarding their information.
People believe that small businesses come with little resources and cannot combat cyber-attacks. Through the development of internal policies and the right security measures; it becomes easier to make online infrastructure more secure.
Here are 8 steps that all small businesses should follow to successfully take your cybersecurity to the next level.
1) Seal off with the essentials
There are certain basic security requirements every e-commerce website needs to have. For example, use a firewall, have a secure payment gate and many more.
If the foundations are made strong only can staff build on it to form advance and more complicated security measures?
2) Have all policies well explained in official documents
Every organization needs to develop policies on how they will implement cybersecurity.
Some policies can be about the personnel who have access to consumer information, how much consumer information is required, what software are used, what are the privacy policies consumers have to agree with and more.
3) All employees need to be well trained
If employees are constantly updated about new cyberattacks and provided regular training, then they’ll be able to effectively tighten the security.
4) Encourage consumers to have strong passwords
Many times, consumers try to keep passwords that are easy to recall or the same passwords in multiple sites.
If there are ways to ensure that consumers input the strongest possible password or continuously change it; it introduces extra protection.
5) Security is not only limited to the online infrastructure but also the offline infrastructure
Creating authentication helps in limiting access to sensitive information. Through authentication, only a limited number of personnel will have access to the information.
6) Apart from having data secured, have it backed up
Data that is backed up will always be of use, especially in case any attack happens that wipes off all crucial information from the database.
7) Have more than one way of ‘logging in’
Often for small businesses security is comparatively weaker, but one way to ensure information is safeguarded is through having more than one way of ‘logging in’ – multifactor identification.
8) Look into the tiny details too
Whatever security measures have been implemented, ensure that is can be easily adapted and implemented to mobile devices like tablets and mobile phones as well.
9) Check for an SSL certificate, as it is a fundamental thing for any web security
There are different SSL certificates out there in the market and you can get SSL certificate as per website’s condition.
For example, if the website operates with many sub domains, then cheapest wildcard SSL certificate is an ideal option that saves extra cost and secure ongoing information.
Conclusion:
These above steps help ensure that small businesses are prepared to combat cyber-attacks. The internet is a vast and deep ocean that has opened a plethora of opportunity as well as danger.
All small businesses need to take the necessary measures so that they can become a big enterprise with strong security.
