Why Securing my Business Network?
Securing your small business network is key to your business. According to the U.S. Congressional Small Business Committee, 71% of cyber-attacks occur at small businesses (defined as organizations with less than 100 employees), and half of all small businesses report cyber attacks. Small businesses are at high risk for security breaches because they often lack the budget and knowledge to protect themselves properly from these attacks.
Small businesses don’t invest in IT, whether that means hiring a specialist, training employees, or purchasing the right security software and tools. However, this needs to change if you want your business to be protected.
Here are a few things your business should be doing to protect your devices and information from hacks.
Steps To Take With Your Devices
Protect your devices. This is a vital step to securing your small business network. All your company devices should have an antivirus installed so that they are protected from any attacks. Your software should also be updated, as this can open you up to risks — outdated software may not be able to withstand a security breach.
Get your passwords up to par. Use a password manager across your entire business to make sure everyone is protected. Change the router password that came with the router so your wifi is secured. Nobody in your office should have a weak password on a company device.
Backup your files regularly. Set up a system for backing up everything every so often and follow it religiously. You’ll be grateful for the routine if anything ever does happen, and it’s worth having this routine in place. Securing your small business network should always include backups.
Encrypt your systems. Having a password between a hacker and your files definitely isn’t enough, so make sure to layer on encryption to all your files and your hard drive in general. This extra step ensures maximum protection of your files.
Steps To Take With Your Team
Have some rules, guidelines, and processes in place. Once you’ve taken all those steps we outlined above, you should make these a part of your business’ operations, not just a one-time thing. Write out your password guidelines, your device policies, your backup schedule, and more into a document you can share with new and old employees, and make sure these processes are followed.
Educate your employees. As we said, share your guidelines with your employees. Train them in your security measures and make sure these become second nature. Making your employees part of the process will help make sure it gets done and make sure that everyone is being safe, at every level, not just the administrative level.
Get some experts in to help you. If you don’t feel comfortable implementing all of the technical aspects yourself, hire experts to advise you or to do it themselves. This will ensure that your business is properly protected. Whoever you hire should also be able to teach you the basics so you can run things on your own, and/or offer maintenance and follow-up every so often.
Take your network security seriously and start securing your small business network. Small businesses are at huge risk for security breaches, and even if your budget is small, it’ll be cheaper to protect yourself before than to clean up the mess afterwards. If you need expert consultants to advise you on security, S-FX has got you covered.
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S-FX.com Small Business Solutions is a boutique web design and technology consulting agency geared towards start-up businesses, small businesses and non-profit businesses. We specialize in implementing low cost technology solutions to maximize efficiency and reduce business operating costs.
