There is no arguing that we live in an increasingly digital age. With businesses migrating en masse to the cloud ever since COVID-19 shocked the world and remote work was needed, small businesses have had to take digital security more seriously.

With this migration, cybercrime has increased, and small business owners have become more vulnerable to malicious attacks due to their limited resources for defending against them. Small business cybersecurity needs to be taken seriously for small companies to remain safe from a potential breach or attack. Let’s talk about it.

Why Does Cybersecurity Matter?

It would be easy for us to drone on and on about the importance of cybersecurity and why you should invest in its preventative measures. Instead, let’s just take a look at some cold hard facts.

• Over 40% of all cyberattacks target small businesses. That is why small business cybersecurity is so important.
• Still think your employees are untouchable? Think again! More than a third of breaches in 2018 alone involved an internal actor. This means that small businesses are more at risk than ever before, and not just from outside criminals! Employee negligence can be a terrible thing.
• Emails are no longer safe. In fact, 9 in 10 incidences of malware occurred through email attachments. Phishing emails tricked unsuspecting small business employees into downloading malicious software or clicking on a link that compromised the entire network.

Best Practices for Preventing Data Breaches and Cyberattacks

1. Establish a culture of security from the top down, starting with your executives. This means developing small business-friendly cybersecurity policies and procedures that everyone in the company can understand and adhere to.
2. Train employees on best practices for avoiding cyber threats. Make sure they have an understanding of phishing, malware, ransomware, and other malicious attacks that target small businesses so they can recognize them quickly when they occur.
3. Invest in reliable defense mechanisms like firewalls, antivirus software, and patch management systems to protect network infrastructure from external threats.
4. Utilize services such as KaufmanIT’s Email Security Services which are designed to detect spam and malicious emails before they reach user inboxes.
5. Establish strong passwords and two-factor authentication systems to ensure that accounts are secure even if an attacker does gain access.
6. Regularly back up all data on external hard drives or cloud storage systems to ensure it is safe in the event of a breach or attack.
7. Monitor your small business’s networks for suspicious activity, such as unusual login attempts or downloads of large amounts of data.
8. Use encryption tools to protect sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands.