How to Build Cybersecurity into your Business

Have you ever lined up a row of dominoes, only to bump one over and have them knock one another down? Your business’ cybersecurity works in the same way…it only takes one point of failure for the whole thing to come crashing down. Let’s talk about the most essential steps you need to implement to keep your small business secured.

Establish Secure Processes

In order to keep your business secure, your operational processes need to be secure as well. Identifying the most secure means of carrying out your business’ daily tasks and establishing that as the standard operating procedure starts you off ahead of the game in terms of your security.

This means looking at everything you do objectively and trying to see holes and flaws. For example, if only one person has access to an important account, and that person doesn’t have the best password hygiene, they could put that account - and your entire network at risk.

Look at how data moves across your organization—is it always being channeled through secure systems, or does sensitive information sometimes end up getting emailed back and forth?

This kind of audit is extensive, but extremely valuable.

Establish Likely Targets

Rather than waiting around to find out what your biggest risk factors are by experiencing an issue, it pays to be a bit more proactive. Try to figure out for yourself what an attacker that targets you would most likely be after and which could be the most catastrophic if they were to be breached. Knowing what these assets are makes it far easier to ensure they are sufficiently secured and defended.

Establish Support from Leadership

This might be one of the hardest ones to accomplish for a lot of businesses.

At the end of the day, any successful initiative in the workplace is going to be one that has the people at the top backing it. Not only does this mean that your cybersecurity will receive the financial backing it needs, but it also means that it will more likely be championed and reinforced by those in charge. As a result, the business as a whole will be more aware of the importance of cybersecurity and—ideally speaking—will be more motivated to abide by your security policies.

If the owner or another executive insists on using an old Hotmail account from the late 90s to do all of their business correspondence from, they are going to be a major risk factor for the business. It can be challenging to convince the people at the top to comply even if they themselves want everyone else to.

The point is, that they have to opt-in, and be shining examples of security awareness.

Establish Policies and Expectations

Finally, you need to codify adherence to your established security standards and reinforce that they are to be followed to the letter, identifying the team members responsible for overseeing the others in terms of their security and empowering them to act. These policies will need to be taught to your team, enforced, and reviewed regularly.

Training Your Team Members is an Essential Step

The long and the short of it is that cybersecurity is a constantly shifting and changing thing, making it essential that all your team members—inclusive—are kept up to speed on the shifts in requirements. As many of them won’t really encounter many of these challenges in their day-to-day efforts and activities, this kind of training is the best option to keep your team up to speed… and by extension, your company more secure.

Digital Sky Solutions is here to help you shore up your business’ security through a variety of solutions and services. Reach out to us to learn how Managed Security Services can help your small business.