Cybersecurity is Essential for Every Business, Regardless of the Company Size

Small Businesses need to protect their networks across multiple locations or branches and their users, regardless of their physical location, if it is in-office or remote. A successful small business focuses on two things above all: growth and cash flow. However, if it has weak cybersecurity, the company can quickly lose focus on these priorities. Smaller companies are very attractive targets for cybercriminals, they know that many small business have weak security environments and a successful attack can be really devastating. It is known that many businesses that suffer a cyberattack won’t recover from it. Small and medium sized businesses need to protect their networks across multiple locations or branches, and their users regardless of their location if it is in-office or remote, while also securing their access to applications, all while retaining simplicity in the security set up and ongoing management without compromising on security because of simplicity.

There are three important questions for business owners

1. What is the current status of your security measures?
2. Where should you start?
3. Where should you augment your existing strategy? 

Lets start by understanding these two big worlds that companies are very commonly utilizing today when its about work environments:

 In Office Operations

People working in your business offices and locations. In this environment, security focuses more on network infrastructure, physical access control, and centralized management. 

Remote Operations

This happens when employees are working from home, away from your office, or when traveling. This requires focus on securing remote connections, endpoint devices, typically mobile computers like laptops, tablets and smartphones, and user authentication.

Both environments benefit from strong policies and continuous monitoring.

Essential Recommendations

Network security

Use of firewalls and intrusion detection systems to  protect internal networks and restrict access from external threats

Device Management

Install a recognized anti-virus/anti-malware software solution in all  your company devices. Implement controls to identify company owned devices and restrict access according to user profiles and unknown equipment.

Patch Management

Regularly update software and hardware to fix vulnerabilities.

Backup and Recovery

Ensure regular backups of all your data. Implement a data backup and recovery policy.

Employee Awareness

Conduct regular cybersecurity training to ensure that employees know how to spot phishing attempts, understand how they can be victims of hackers, what actions to take when an on going security breach is suspected or detected. Well trained employees is one of the best defensive strategies.

Use strong passwords

implement policies to avoid the use of simple passwords that are easily guessed by hackers

Use Multi Factor Authentication

The use of passwords alone is not enough.  Today, it is required to implement at least, a second factor authentication like security tokens generated by phone apps or the use of security devices like security keys to authenticate users and protect from compromised passwords.

Cloud Security

Secure cloud environments with encryption and proper access controls

Data Encryption

Encrypt sensitive data both at rest and in transit to prevent unauthorized access. What is At rest: it is data stored in your systems or networks; In Transit: data being transferred between locations, employees or external people.

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