A Guide to Protecting Your Startup from Cyberattacks

The simple fact that you rely on electronic devices to help run your business puts you at risk of a cyber attack. Since a significant percentage of the population use smartphones, it isn’t surprising that hackers have an easy time infiltrating them. Sadly, the hackers will most likely get away with their crimes, leaving you to deal with the mess they made. By the time they are done with you, your account is drained, and your clients are breathing down your neck because you leaked their sensitive data. Therefore, cybersecurity should be at the top of your priorities if you don’t want to lose all your hard work. Stick around to learn how to protect your startup from cyber attacks:

Draft and implement a written security policy

You might have gone over what your staff members need to do in the face of a security breach. However, it is not enough to pass this information verbally as this might cause misunderstandings in the office. Some of your employees could also forget the guidelines and fail to act accordingly. Therefore, your cybersecurity policy should include all the possible scenarios during a security breach and cover how to deal with the situation.

Get updates on current hacking trends

It would help to remember that hackers sharpen their skills by the day. The most common form of cyber attack could be replaced with a more nefarious attack in the blink of an eye. If you are not careful, an emerging risk you didn’t think was possible could happen to your startup. Instead of waiting to be an example to the rest, it would help to be proactive. Encourage your staff to research the latest hacking trends in the industry and what to do if you find yourself in a fix. Since prevention is better than cure, we also suggest you put measures in place to safeguard your business from emerging risks.

Outsource IT support

As an entrepreneur, you have numerous tasks that require your attention at your startup. Given that you might not have too many employees or none at all, you are stuck doing most of the work independently. However, this doesn’t have to be the case regarding your IT department.

Even though you are a tech guru, you can’t possibly know everything there is to know about technology and how to prevent cyber attacks on small businesses. An outsourced IT support team from a managed service provider (MSP) will provide you with access to some of the top cybersecurity skills and tools. It will protect you from cyber attacks and give you access to top-tier infrastructure on a budget.

Encourage your staff to be security-focused

The complacent nature of the employees could put your startup at significant risk. Even though your staff members know exactly what to do, most aren’t bothered to do it. The best way to remedy this problem is to schedule regular meetings where you remind your staff of the basics and importance of password management and staying on top of hacking trends, so they are not caught off-guard. Since most employees mix their personal devices with their work lives, that should be an extra reason to be more vigilant.

Watch what you post on social media

Social media is excellent for connecting with your customers and letting them know more about your brand. However, you could get too carried away and post personal information that could give hackers the key to cracking your passcodes. Therefore, it would be wise to exercise caution when posting information to your public social media profile. We also suggest you be on the lookout for suspicious activity like a message you don’t remember posting.

Ensure you update your systems

You would be surprised to know that almost half of the hacking attempts are not carried out by humans. Hackers have created automated bots that scour the Internet, searching for loopholes and outdated software to infiltrate. Once the bot successfully gets into the system, the hackers take over and make sure to leave your business in shambles.

You wouldn’t want to be among the unfortunate websites to fall victim to an attack of that kind. Therefore, we urge you never to ignore a prompt to update your system. You could also change your settings to allow your systems to update automatically.

Wrap up

You might put up a good fight against hackers and common malware, but even the most secure businesses get hacked sometimes. Thus, knowing that the perfect security measure doesn’t exist would be the best place to start. That said, you would rather hope for the best but prepare for the worst. This realization will keep you on your toes and testing new security measures plus you should invest in proper disaster recovery plans should there be an attack.