There are a lot of things to work out when you are starting a business: titles search for an ideal place for a physical store, contracts, licenses, merchandise production, hiring employees, and so on. Not to mention saving up or loaning the capital money you will need to accomplish all of that. But would you know, there is still one other thing start-ups and small businesses such as yours should be worried about: hacking.
In our age, hacking or news about if is probably already a bit quaint. Not unless, of course, if you have become a victim of it. You would think that hackers would target big corporations where the money flows easily; however, because these big businesses have a heavily funded cyber security, hackers switch their gears to small and midsize companies.
The Low Down
From an article on Future of Business and Tech, Michael Kaiser says that 71% of security breaches have targeted small businesses. Kaiser is the executive director of the National Cybersecurity, and he further explains that while larger companies have doubled down on their defences, it is the smaller ones who fall prey to hackers who wish to steal sensitive data. This boils down to the lack of knowledge and resources to get their digital assets secured.
It is actually much more frightening if you think about because it means hackers are only in it for the game and not the challenge itself. If it were otherwise, they would have all just focused on hacking larger corporations.
It does not matter how big or small your business is, as long as something can be stolen from your digital archives, it shall be done.
A few steps in Protecting your Business
The National Institute of Standards and Technology created a checklist all kinds of companies can initially go through to make sure valuable information is safe.
- Identify the most important digital assets you have stored on your computer, on a cloud, and so on. If these are very important to you, then these are gems hackers will definitely target. Try to anticipate what they might be interested in as well by double-checking certain information or files you may have overlooked like a list of addresses and accounts.
- Learn about what you can do to protect these assets. If you must hire an expert, then do so while the damage has not been done yet.
- Set up an alert system that can be triggered once security has been breached
- Make sure you have countermeasures planned in the event of a cyber-attack. Talk to an expert about how you can respond without affecting the business operations.
- Include in these measures how your business can recover from a security breach so your business can normally run again.
When you are planning to start a business. It would be wise to invest in cybersecurity. Partner up with experts who can help you understand these threats and how you can respond to each and everyone of them. Collaborate with them to ensure that all the information and other digital assets you may have are protected.
Further, nothing beats learning. Educate your employees about the best practices listed above keep protective measures at the top of everyone’s mind.