Operating a business in the year 2018 is, to put it mildly, a little more complicated than it was a mere 20 years ago. The rise of the internet has not only brought greater flexibility, but also a seemingly endless list of complications which, if ignored, threaten to destroy your fledgeling business before it truly begins to fly.
One such complication is the matter of cybersecurity.
It’s been an ever-present topic in the press over recent years, following major breaches at some of the largest and most respected companies and organisations around. However, it’s not just big businesses which suffer from security breaches, because home-based businesses and small-medium-businesses are also facing significant threats from a wide variety of sources, domestic and international.
Case in point? 52% of small business in the UK have experienced cybersecurity breaches in the past year. It’s a daunting statistic, but you don’t have to wade into this battle unarmed. In fact, with just a few changes you can improve the cybersecurity of your home or small business dramatically. Here are five simple steps to enhanced home business cybersecurity that you can implement today.
1) Update Your Devices
Simple it may be, but it’s a devastatingly effective way of staying ahead of the latest vulnerabilities that are inherent to all operating systems. Take the ‘meltdown’ vulnerability, which affected almost every known PC and could potentially give hackers unparalleled access to your PC. Without an update, your PC would never remove this vulnerability. Companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft spend hundreds of millions on security experts to patch and protect their operating systems, so make use of that ‘update’ button.
2) Change Default Passwords
If somebody is determined to gain access to your accounts, system or even home Wi-Fi network, the first thing they’ll do is test to see if your default login details are still in place. These are the login details which are provided to you upon installation and are often ‘admin/admin’ or ‘admin/password’. Needless to say, this offers little protection and, although it looks to be common sense, it’s still a prevalent issue. In fact, it has been outlined as a frequent way in which security is misconfigured, in the 2017 OWASP Top 10. This list is put together by researchers to highlight the most common application security issues taken advantage of by cybercrime every year.
3) Create Backups
The sharp increase in ransomware attacks has meant that now, more than ever before, it’s essential that you create secure backups to hard drives which aren’t connected to any device – and of course, aren’t online. It’ll ensure that if somebody does hold your information for ransom, you’re free to disregard their threats and simply reinstate your data on a fresh install.
4) Use a Password Manager
Password managers are programs which automatically generate and input extremely complicated and long passwords for websites and applications across the devices you use. Almost impossible to crack, these passwords are stored in an encrypted file which ensures that even if somebody hacks your password manager, your passwords remain a secret.
5) Remove Ex-Employee Accounts
Ensuring that your permissions and user accounts are up-to-date is essential to limiting the number of locations an attacker can target. If an employee, freelancer or contractor no longer needs access to your systems, remove their access. Remember, just because you’re using strong passwords it doesn’t mean that everyone else with access to your system is.
These simple steps don’t require specialised cybersecurity knowledge and are easy to implement right away. There is an abundance of resources online to help business owners with each one in case there are questions, and they can help save your business and data in case of a breach.
