Cybersecurity best practices for small and medium businesses

Small and medium-sized businesses rely on technology to push forward their business goals and serve their customers. But what happens when that technology is leveraged against them by bad actors online? Cybercriminals can use malware, ransomware, phishing, and denial-of-service attacks to extort professionals. This is why cybersecurity is vital for businesses of all sizes because if you don’t protect your business from these attacks beforehand, you will pay for it on the backend. 

What is cybersecurity? 

Cybersecurity is a huge industry that covers a multitude of IT functions. But it can also be used as a general term to describe actions that defend your data, devices, network, and users from attacks. That’s how we will be talking about it today. 

If you need a simple way to remember what cybersecurity is, think of it as the act of keeping information, ranging from embarrassing baby photos to pentagon secrets, available to only the right people. 

How can I implement cybersecurity? 

There are various ways for you to implement effective cybersecurity measures. We want to focus on pre-incident actions because that is most important for small and medium businesses, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 

The first step is creating the policies in the first place. Here are the key areas to focus on when building your cybersecurity policy. 

Anti-virus software

This should always include real-time file scanning and web browser protection to ensure viruses aren’t gaining access via your files or internet usage. It’s also important to consider the processing power of your devices so that they don’t slow things down too much. 

Email security

An email security system should keep organizational email accounts from unauthorized access, loss, or compromise. They can also help filter out spam and phishing attacks. 

Managed firewall

A firewall is a network security solution that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic. A managed firewall service helps operate, monitor, and maintain your firewall infrastructure. This is a harm-reduction tool you can use to keep people off websites known to have viruses. 

Password management

A password manager tracks and stores your passwords for applications and services. It can also help you share passwords across users, so nobody’s password is vulnerable when sent over text messages or other platforms. 

How important is the usage of cybersecurity measures? 

If we can give you one piece of advice that will help protect your business from cyberattacks, it’s this: If everyone doesn’t use the measures correctly, they are ineffective!

If you have a giant stone wall with a huge gaping hole, attackers will just use the hole. The same goes for cyber threats. When your entire team uses these measures except one person, that is the person who will be hacked. 

Cybersecurity and IT can be time-consuming for your business. If you feel overwhelmed by all the existing options, you aren’t alone. Many of our clients came to us so they could focus on their clients instead of cybersecurity issues. Contact TeamLogic IT to find out how we can help you spend less time working on IT problems and more time running your business.