6 Ways to Protect Small Business Data

Small and mid-sized businesses are a big part of the economy of each country. Every year companies are exposing cyberattacks that lead to high expenses for business owners. Some businesses can’t overcome the situation and are forced to leave the market. 

According to Verizon Data Breach, 58% of small businesses were attacked by intruders. Another research shows that the average cost of each incident associated with a cyberattack is 7.68$ million for small companies. Such high cost is driven by the need to identify and eliminate data breaches, legal costs and regulatory fines, etc. Besides, data breach leads to general material losses as a price reduction for services, loss of investors, and reduction of business productivity.   

The main effects of cyberattacks on small business:

1.  Damaging storage data. Personal information, information about orders, documents, or other data that are necessary for company work can be deleted or stolen. Recovering such data is an expensive and long term process. 
2. Loose reputation. According to a Verizon study, 69% of clients consider that data protection is essential for company politics. Thus, customers lose trust and refuse to collaborate with a company after a data breach. Moreover, potential clients may avoid companies with a dubious reputation. 
3. Litigations. If a client's data occurs in the hands of a third party, in our case scammers, a client can sue a company. And the more clients and stolen data, the more lawsuits and proceedings. Yet trial is not only a long and unpleasant process but expensive. 
4. Losing money. All the above lead to huge expenses, loss of clients, investors, and incomes. But the worst is completely company bankruptcy and set out from the market.  

 But what is the reason for such scammers' attention to small businesses?  

First, small businesses are less protected from cyberattacks. Research shows that only 43% of small and mid-sized companies in the U.S. and the United Kingdom have a data protection plan. And some parts of companies don't use security strategies at all. Many companies use cloud services within work that haven't strong encryption technology. In addition, business owners don't believe that their companies' systems can be hacked. According to Towergate Insurance research, 82% of small business owners don’t assume their company will occur under cyberattacks.  

Second, specialists from ESET assume that small businesses occur in the hackers' spotlight because small companies have more data information than individuals and weaker security than corporations.  

And third, small companies can be loopholes for big corporations. Hackers can use vulnerabilities in small company systems to access systems of well-protected enterprise systems.  

This happened with a small HVAC company that collaborated with Target and had remote access to the Target network. Scammers stole access credentials to Target's network and then hacked the system and got million credit card details. 

Let’s consider ways to prevent cyberattacks. 

1. Educate employees. Regular training and reminders about cybersecurity help to avoid a data breach. Personnel should remember that scammers can send emails on behalf of other employees with a requirement to give access credentials, passwords, or other types of data, or even with a request to give material help. Besides, employees should know that using a personal laptop or computer while working isn't safe enough. And such places as cafes, airports and hotels with unsecured networks bring high risks of cyberattacks. Besides, laptops can be stolen. Educate your employees about how to correctly verify unsecured networks and protect sensitive data.
2. Implement a risk-based approach to cybersecurity. Such an approach helps to identify, evaluate, and reduce risk. Also, it concentrates on the main sensitive areas and prioritizes the budget according to safety issues. Thus, this approach reduces risk and maintenance costs simultaneously. 
3. Test your site, program, app, etc. Without a doubt, companies shouldn't miss the testing stage within the development process. Such type of testing as penetration testing helps to find bottlenecks in secure areas. Usually, penetration testing is a simulated cyberattack that identifies vulnerabilities and blind spots in code. Penetration testing allows you to get a report with risks and defects that the development team has to eliminate and thus improve data security.  
4. Encrypt data. You have to protect data in two ways. First, to protect from a physical breach into a system. And second, encrypting data to make it impossible to use by scammers. Specialists insist that encrypting is a robust way to protect data if breaches have occurred. Many encrypting programs allow you to encrypt and save data in many ways. Some of it even encrypts a deleted version of a document, as it can be restored from hardware by scammers. 
5. Backup data. Sometimes cyber hackers may block access to data or overall damage it hinders company work. Solutions for it are backup data and storing it separately.
6. Regularly update software and OS. Cyber hackers regularly improve skills and their methods of breaches become more sophisticated. But software companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, create new ways of security protection and provide them with updates. Thus, regular patches prevent cyber-attacks. But remember that sometimes companies stop to support some products and don't release updates for them.  

 Wrapping up 

So, even if you are into a small business with less than a hundred employees, you have a high risk to undergo cyberattack. With a well-designed cybersecurity strategy, you can protect and save sensitive data. By adhering to security inside a company and designing a training strategy for employees, you'll reduce risks to a minimum.