New business owners starting their managerial career need to take care of the key security features.
As reported by Fundera, 43% of cyberattacks happens to small businesses.
This means that every SMB is a potential target, regardless of its size.
Because of that, it’s essential to establish a clear security business police from day one.
In this article, you can learn the top five security tips for SMBs in the digital environment.
1. Train your employees
You and your employees share the same responsibility for the data and all business information you use at work.
That’s why training on data security should be one of the first steps in improving your business security.
Inform all your employees that they’re obliged to attend those training sessions.
Among other things, they need to learn how to make a strong password, how to use email in a safely manner, and what to do if they notice anything strange with their computer or business data.
If you possess the required knowledge, you can manage that training.
If not there are two available options: hiring a digital security specialist to hold that training on your business premises or paying an online course that all your employees need to attend and pass.
2. Back up everything important
A large number of businesses uses cloud storage options as backup solutions for their in-house business data.
What’s interesting is that a growing number of ventures has abandoned storing data on their office computers. Those SMBs have opted to keep all their business data on the cloud.
For business beginners, this might be a bit too much, especially if they have employees with insufficient experience in the online business surroundings.
Anyway, it would be clever to back up your important business data on the cloud. For instance, you can either use the free storage space on G Drive or choose any other cloud storage solutions for SMBs for your needs. The great thing about online storage is that you can scale that space in line with your current needs. When you have more files and data to store, you pay a higher tier. If your storage needs decrease, you switch to a lower and less expensive tier.
So, in case you lose any data on your in-house machines, you’ll have them backed up on the cloud. If anything happens to the cloud storage provider, you can rest assured that your data will stay safe. All renowned online storage providers back up the data they keep for their clients.
3. Limit physical access to computers
Regardless of your business size, don’t take data security for granted.
In that light, pay attention to your employees’ access rights. Limiting physical access to your office computers is a wise thing to do in order to increase your overall business security.
Assign an account or profile to every user on every computer. It would be great if one employee would get one computer, so that they don’t have to switch between accounts on the same computer.
On the other hand, if you have laptops that your employees take home, highlight the usage rules and explain to them how important it is that they take good care of security.
4. Rely on latest software options
Many hacker attacks succeed because attacked computers weren’t protected with the latest versions of their antivirus software.
Knowing that, it’s extremely important that both business owners and their workers strictly follow the policy on software updates.
If possible, set all software solutions to automatically download their latest updates. That way, you’ll ensure constant protection without thinking about it.
The same goes for firewalls and other protective tools.
Also, post a reminder note somewhere in the office to remind your employees that they should regularly scan their computers. If they work from home, remind them a few times a month via Slack or any other communication tool you’re using.
If all software tools on your computers are regularly updated and if perform additional manual checkups, you’ll significantly reduce the risk of data theft.
5. Protect your business website
Business websites are on the front line of protection from hacker attacks. That’s why every entrepreneur should take good care of their website security and its features.
For starters, switch on automatic updates for all elements that keep your website up. Work with your hosting provider to back up the entire site and its content.
What’s more, insist on SSL encryption on your website pages. This is a valuable security enhancement that denies third parties from accessing or intercepting your customers’ login credentials.
As the web experts from a Houston web design company suggest, control third-party posts to your website. This mostly refers to user’s comments under blog comments and customer’s product reviews. Those content bits should be approved manually to ensure they don’t have any malicious content. This is a practical thing to do in terms of prevention of violent or any other inappropriate content, as well.
Finally, use strong passwords for admin access rights and consider applying two-factor authentication for that purpose.
SMBs often have issues with budgeting at the beginning. Still, online security is not the part of your business where you should make savings. Make sure that all the soft spots of your business security in the digital realm are properly covered. Keep your employees aware of all potential threats and teach them how to stay safe. Back up your business data and use only cutting-edge protection tools. Finally, increase your website security to keep both your business and clients’ data secure for smooth future activities.