How to Build a Cybersecurity Strategy for Your Small Business

Small businesses are burdened with various challenges as they compete in a highly volatile business environment. Cybersecurity has grown in prominence among the countless threats to their existence. Years ago, it was the large-scale organizations with financial might and widespread presence that were at risk of online threats. But today, even smaller companies have much to lose in the event of cybercrime.

Regardless of a company’s scale, criminals could profit from a targeted attack in countless ways. This is why data hacking, business identity theft, and similar incidents have grown steadily over the years.

If you are worried about your organization’s security health, it is time to take action to protect it. Here are the critical steps for building a cybersecurity strategy for your small business.

Conduct a Risk Assessment

Before implementing security measures, you must first conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment. It will help you understand your business’s security strengths, weaknesses, and gaps to determine the best course of action for meeting its specific needs.

A risk assessment will also allow you to identify critical assets that require protection. These can often go beyond an organization’s financial and material wealth.

For instance, customer databases provide your company with a competitive advantage, which makes them an important resource to protect. But there are other reasons to safeguard these data assets. You have an ethical obligation toward your clients to keep their personal data secure. In addition, consumer protection laws require businesses to ensure the safety of customer data.

Similarly, patents, formulas, and marketing plans can all be of critical value to your business, making them top priorities in your cybersecurity strategy. A risk assessment by an expert will help you identify all these areas. Remember, a comprehensive review should cover the entire organization, including people and processes, not just the technology.

Establish Cybersecurity SOPs and Policies

An in-depth framework provides employees clarity and guidance on your company’s cybersecurity protocols. It can help minimize common mistakes and enable better control of procedures that could compromise data safety.

Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all proposition when it comes to setting up cybersecurity SOPs and policies. It should be designed based on your organization’s specific activities, so it can cater to your company requirements without unnecessarily restricting operational flexibility.

Consider the findings of the risk assessment, as well as your business model, regular activities, culture, and needs, when creating cybersecurity protocols. For instance, a BYOD security framework would be essential when employees use their own laptops for work purposes. And if you allow teams to work from home, developing an SOP to define safe remote working practices is important. 

Strengthen Your Security Environment

An effective security system is critical for preventing and mitigating cyber threats. It should include:

• Setting up firewalls.
• Installing anti-virus software.
• Updating software with the latest patches.
• Establishing access controls.
• Implementing regular data backups.
• Signing up for a cyber insurance policy.

Implementing such measures will naturally involve certain expenditures. For example, you may need to purchase software licenses and hire security experts. However, the cost of these is dwarfed by what you stand to lose when faced with a security breach.

According to studies, small businesses are the target of 43% of cyberattacks, and 40% of them experience over eight hours of downtime, incurring significant losses. One study estimates the cost of a data breach to be around $3 million for SMBs. You can minimize many of these risks and potential financial losses by allocating a reasonable budget for cybersecurity measures.

Train Your Employees

Human errors are responsible for 82% of data breaches. While some of these could be intentional, most are due to poor awareness and knowledge. So, training your team is critical to help them understand the risks involved and the measures they should take to prevent them.

They include:

• Following the company’s security protocols and procedures.
• Remaining alert about common cyber risks and using PhoneHistory, Truecaller, and other digital tools to avoid them.
• Keeping company devices strictly for work purposes.
• Alerting the organization of potential threats and breaches.

Training should cover all employees in your organization, regardless of their field of work. Use interactive workshops, handouts, and quizzes to make learning more effective. But staff education should not be a one-time activity. You should conduct periodic sessions to reinforce cyber awareness and ensure it remains a priority in your company culture.

Review and Audit

Once implemented, your cybersecurity strategy requires continuous monitoring to identify new threats and vulnerabilities and address them without delay.

Remember, threats evolve with time, and so will your business. Therefore, regular reviews and adjustments will be necessary to cater to changing conditions and business requirements. 

You must also schedule cybersecurity risk assessments from time to time. These could offer critical insights for strengthening your security infrastructure. Audits are equally essential. Random and scheduled audits can help uncover human errors and omissions so you can implement timely measures to minimize them. 

To Recap

Today, cyber threats rank among the top risks faced by small businesses. A simple attack can lead to detrimental outcomes that a small-scale company may find difficult to endure. A data breach, for instance, could damage your organization’s reputation and credibility, result in costly downtime, and leave you with sky-high legal fines.

It is why almost half of small businesses that encounter a cyber attack or breach face the risk of closing down. Yet, nearly half of SMBs have no plans in place to tackle these threats.

From phishing attacks and malware infections to identity theft and financial fraud, cyber risks can come in many shapes and forms. Understanding these and setting up effective security systems is crucial for thriving in a technology-led competitive landscape.

In this article, we have outlined a clear roadmap for you to develop a cybersecurity strategy for your small business. Start with a risk assessment to gain a clear picture of your security health. You can then design a robust framework with standard operating procedures and policies to inform and guide your operations.