Many small business owners misguidedly think that their company is too small to be a target for cybercriminals, but cyberattacks on small businesses are common and on the rise. 43% of data breaches involve small to mid-size businesses. Creating a cybersecurity culture within your business not only improves your cyber hygiene but also empowers your employees to become safer online.
A cyberattack on a small business could be catastrophic and with this in mind, our team has put together 10 tips on creating a cybersecurity culture within your organization.
Define Cybersecurity for Your Organization
The first step in creating a cybersecurity culture is to define what cybersecurity means for your business. What are the threats that you face? What are your vulnerabilities? What are your critical assets? To get started with seeing where your business vulnerabilities are we encourage you to complete a vulnerability assessment. This assessment will provide insights into where your business is most vulnerable to attack and allow for a plan of action to remediate and start decreasing your cyber risk. Once you have a clear understanding of these things, you can begin to create policies and procedures to proactively protect your business.
Train Your Employees
Security awareness training is key to creating a culture of cybersecurity. Your employees are the frontline of your business and make or break your business depending on the level of potential threat. Understanding the security basics such as how to handle sensitive data, how to spot a phishing email, and how to report anything suspicious should be a baseline of knowledge. Regular training will help to keep your employees up-to-date on the latest cybersecurity threats.
Educate and Advocate for Cybersecurity
It’s important to educate your employees about cybersecurity threats. They should understand the importance of cybersecurity and how it affects your business. Advocate for cybersecurity at all levels of your organization. Encourage employees to take steps to stay safe online, such as using strong passwords, enabling MFA, and being cautious about clicking on suspicious links in emails.
Create Cybersecurity Policies and Procedures
Once you have defined cybersecurity within your organization, you can begin to create policies and procedures to protect your business. These should be based on your unique needs, compliance regulations and potential threats. Make sure to involve all employees in the process, so they understand the importance of these policies and procedures and the role they play.
Enforce Cybersecurity Policies and Procedures
Once you have created cybersecurity policies and procedures, it’s important to enforce them. This means holding employees accountable for following the policies and procedures. Employees should be held accountable for not following the policy your company has put in place. Understanding that by not following these policies they are not only putting the company in danger but their actions could potentially shut down a business or leak sensitive customer data.
Monitor Your Systems
It’s important to monitor your systems for cybersecurity threats. By partnering with a cybersecurity provider like ANC Group you can expect your partner to regularly monitor your network and remediate any possible cyber threats. The best network security providers don’t simply install a solution and then leave it—quality protection is a day-in, day-out job that requires a big-picture plan and ongoing support.
Keep Your Systems & Applications Up To Date
Vulnerabilities are regularly found in computer software. It’s important to keep your systems and applications up-to-date with the latest software and security patches. This will help to protect your business from known cybersecurity threats. Make sure to test any new patches before you deploy them to your systems. Implement automatic updates where possible and create a schedule for updates if they need to be performed manually.
Backup Your Data
It is essential to have a good backup policy in place. Managed backups It’s important to back up your data regularly. This will help you to recover from a cybersecurity incident. The better your data backup, the easier it’ll be to continue performing at an optimal level if disaster strikes. With a unique, three-tiered approach to backup, ANC Group makes it easier than ever to keep your company up and running no matter what.
Create an Incident Response Plan
An incident response plan is a set of instructions to help IT staff detect, respond to, and recover from network security incidents. These types of plans address issues like cybercrime, data loss, and service outages that threaten daily work. It’s important to include an incident response plan within your organization’s cybersecurity policies.
Regularly Test Your Incident Response Plan
Make sure to regularly test your incident response plan. This seems like a no-brainer but having the policy in place is a fantastic place to start. But if your employees aren’t aware of how to recover from an incident or the role they play, they can potentially cause more damage and downtime to your business.
Partnering With ANC Group for Cybersecurity
Creating a cybersecurity culture is key to protecting your business from cyberattacks. By following these tips, you can start to create and promote a cybersecurity culture within your organization that will help to keep your business safe.
At ANC Group we provide a variety of cybersecurity solutions to protect your organization from cybercriminals, malware, and other cyber threats. Our team is dedicated to providing you with affordable, custom-tailored solutions to meet your budget and business goals. Give our team of cybersecurity experts a call today at (888) 424-4863 or schedule a complimentary security assessment.
