Studies and data reveal that small businesses are on the radar of hackers. Many sectors, such as retail, have been particularly prone to cyberattacks, and it always seems that hackers find new means to cause a breach, or steal data. There are a few proactive measures that your company can take to stay ahead of hackers. In this post, we are suggesting what can be done beforehand, so that you can thaw attempts, and in case of a breach, your small business can minimize the impact.
Hire ethical hackers
This may seem like an expensive exercise for small businesses, but can actually help considerably. In fact, hiring the security community to hack your company recorder, or to find flaws within systems, networks, and networked devices, doesn’t have to be about big budgets. Ethical hackers are only paid when they can find bugs, security vulnerabilities and flaws. Many companies have bug bounty programs, while others prefer to hire an experienced service, which in turn hires ethical hackers.
Create cybersecurity culture
To remain proactive about cybersecurity, you have to create a culture within the organization, where everyone is involved. Cybersecurity culture ensures that every employee plays a dominant and active role in preventing security breaches, by taking necessary measures. Such measures include safe browsing, keeping an eye on phishing emails, creating strong passwords, and reporting incidents. If required, engage cybersecurity experts to create a training plan.
Design an incident response plan
This brings us to the third aspect of proactive cybersecurity, which is about having an incident response plan. Not all breaches and leaks are deliberate, and sometimes, employees make unintentional errors. Nevertheless, all incidents must be reported, for which a plan must be in place. Such a plan also allows the necessary teams to take corrective action to prevent further damage.
Take backups
Finally, take regular backups, so that you can restore your systems and networks, in case of a breach. This is particularly necessary and important for attacks related to malware, such as ransomware. Backups can be scheduled as required, or your team can decide to take immediate backups after any major change within the IT environment.
Final word
Staying ahead of hackers requires small businesses to be alert at all times. Do not let your guard down, even when your niche hasn’t been affected as much. Also, go for IP cameras, so that you can club on-premise security with cybersecurity effectively.
