Industry Insights

Blog, Technology

The Small Business Cybersecurity Starter Pack

by | Friday, November 1st, 2019

Running a business is one thing, but it is quite another to protect it from issues and threats. There is a vast assortment of potential obstacles that can pop up during your operations. Likewise, there are many ways that a business needs to be protected, each one as crucial as the last. A few basics include:

  • Staff Training – Without the ability to spot potential threats before falling for them, your employees are apt to get caught up in scams, ransomware attacks, and phishing attempts. Every level of the business needs to be taught how to spot these threats and mitigate them – including you – so there’s less of a chance of these threats being successful.
  • Network Protection – Any device on your network, as well as your network itself, needs to have sufficient security solutions protecting it. You should have antivirus and antimalware installed, as well as content filtering to prevent improper and risky web surfing, and firewalls to block incoming threats along with too many other protections to list here.
  • Password Policies – A survey by the UK-based National Cyber Security Centre revealed a few important things in an analysis of passwords involved in data breaches around the world. For example, here was the top 10 list of common passwords in breaches:
    • 1. 123456
    • 2.123456789
    • 3. qwerty
    • 4. password
    • 5. 111111
    • 6. 12345678
    • 7. abc123
    • 8. 1234567
    • 9. password1
    • 10. 12345

    You probably noticed a pattern here. You need to have password policies in place that prevent these kinds of passwords from being utilized. Preferably, your users would use a passphrase, as these can be more secure than the typically recommended randomized password… if devised properly.

  • Keep Software Updated – The majority of software updates are intended to shore up security concerns, so putting off updates for no reason is risky behaviour. Make sure that you remain diligent about updating your solutions.
  • Prepare for the Worst – The unfortunate truth is that some cyber threats are bound to slip by your defences at some point – that’s just statistics. Therefore, you need to have an ace up your sleeve – or a reliable, bulletproof backup solution. Of course, you also need to have a strategy mapped out for any scenario that might force you to use it.

For assistance in handling any of these tasks (and more), reach out to Compudata.

We can assist necessary for you to accomplish these goals effectively and efficiently. To learn more, call 1-855-405-8889.

A Glimpse Into What Compliance Looks Like for Businesses

It’s easy to see all the reasons why you should make data regulations and compliance a priority. After all, you want to ensure you don’t violate the trust and security of your customers, as well as the integrity of your operations. If you make even one mistake, it...

AI Search Isn’t There Yet

People do this all the time: if they don’t know an answer, they just make something up that sounds right. It turns out AI has the same bad habit. A Study Put AI Search to the Test, and It Did Not Go Well Researchers at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism (part of...

Remote Work Is Great, but There Are Some Pitfalls

Do you have employees working remotely? If you do, the real question is, are you doing everything you can to keep them productive and secure? Remote work is awesome, but it comes with its fair share of risks. Today, we get into how to competently confront them. Remote...

Hiring IT is Hard (Here’s How to Make It Easier)

Do you have someone on your staff who can handle most IT-related issues for your business? If not, we’re sure your organization feels it in more ways than one. The issues that come from not having IT help are only made more frustrating when it comes time to find IT...

Let’s Take the Lid Off of CAPTCHA

We've officially reached the point where humans have to prove they're, well, human just to access websites. One of the most common ways to do this? CAPTCHA. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. It might sound...

Automation Isn’t Always the Best Business Option

Automation makes sense from an operations standpoint, and people see this despite the many who advocate for scaling back to save jobs. For every task that can be completed, however, less than half can be automated. When you consider all the tasks that a human might be...

More Reading from Industry Insights:

AI Search Isn’t There Yet

People do this all the time: if they don’t know an answer, they just make something up that sounds right. It turns out AI has the same bad habit. A Study Put AI Search to the Test, and It Did Not Go Well Researchers at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism (part of...

Hiring IT is Hard (Here’s How to Make It Easier)

Do you have someone on your staff who can handle most IT-related issues for your business? If not, we’re sure your organization feels it in more ways than one. The issues that come from not having IT help are only made more frustrating when it comes time to find IT...