Cybersecurity is a growing concern for all kinds of enterprises, especially small and fledgling companies need to take more considerable precautions to safeguard their personal and private information against hackers. Today all types of organizations are prone to cyberattacks, and startups can be under more significant threats as they lack assets with fewer safety sites, records, and proper system frameworks. As per statistics, 43% of the cyberattacks are targeted at small enterprises and startups, and the average cost of a data breach for companies is about $3.92 million, which can be a massive amount for startups.
How can startups protect themselves against growing cyber-attacks?
Cybersecurity must be a key focus for all enterprises, and especially startups operating in a competitive landscape. To establish and survive, startups must take all possible precautions to safeguard their valuable data and few of them are as follows.
Create a backup for your data
Data and information can be valuable for small enterprises, and it’s recommended to have a backup plan in place to store all protect them against hacking attempts. Firstly, you need to determine what type of backup your business needs in the first place. Assess whether you need to restore, recover, or maintain specific services. This will help you to decide if you need to store your data on-site or use cloud storage if required or even opt for a hybrid mix.
Educate your co-workers and staff members
Most of the cyberattacks are technical and highly complex, which may be hard to understand by non-technical staff members. The best way to defend your systems against such rising threats is by making cybersecurity training essential for your employees to boost their awareness. It’s essential to include information regarding common cyber threats arising due to phishing, malware, man-in-the-middle, and DDoS attacks.
Employees need to educate regarding the use of strong passwords to increase the security of the systems within the organization.
Use best security practices
It’s necessary to create robust security policies and ensure that your employees follow them strictly to avoid cybersecurity attacks on the system. These days, cybercriminals use other smart tactics, including phone impersonation, and use online infiltration methods to hack networks. Apart from the physical security of your premises, you need to restrict access to sensitive data and have measures in place to detect fraud and prevent such incidences.
Install SSL certificates
Data encryption can ensure increased security for your websites, and using HTTPS can safeguard your customer information, which may contain sensitive data. SSL guards and encrypts the data making communication safe. For a single-domain SSL, you can consider the Comodo Positive SSL certificate, which can be a great option that offers fast and cost-effective solutions to be used for all online transactions. It helps to keep customers’ information safe against intruders.
Use two-factor authentication for your site
Passwords alone may not be able to offer the best protection to your systems; instead of using a two-step verification may prove to be more effective in providing security. Thus, a two-factor verification process involves not just using username and password but also verifying it with the mobile code of the users. This additional layer of protection can be valuable in protecting your sensitive information from hackers to make it hard for them to tamper with your systems.
Have a password manager for your sites
It may be cumbersome to remember multiple passwords across different sites, especially if they have a combination of random letters, symbols, numbers, and special characters. Hence, it’s recommended to use a password manager on your device, which can save all your passwords in one place in an encrypted form to make it safer. Thus, when you log on to any website, the password will be automatically filled in the respective fields.
Update your cybersecurity software
It’s necessary to have your cybersecurity software, including antivirus and anti-phishing programs up to date. This is because cybercriminals can easily infiltrate networks by detecting any loopholes into the system, primarily if they haven’t been found out by your software. If your software is updated, it can plug in all these software defects, and whenever a pop-up emerges, it’s best to install them straight away to avoid a breach of information.
Have a privacy policy for employees
Startups need to indicate the sort of usage that users need to follow on the system and who has access to their data and other information. They need to understand what systems to follow in the event of information leak and how to deal with it. At times, employees store sensitive information on their gadgets, which must not be allowed by having a strict policy in place.
Be aware of information breaches
Startup owners need to have information regarding different types of cyber-attacks, and one of them is information breaches. Thus, cybercriminals may target the information related to your organization by gaining access to a database and other client-related data. Enterprises need to be careful while sharing information across social media networks and be vigilant about safeguarding their system against hacking attempts.
Conclusion
With new cyber threats emerging regularly, it might be even more challenging for startups and enterprises. However, the best defense is to be prepared to reduce such rising threats using the best security measures, policies, and cybersecurity software. Creating awareness about cybersecurity and using proper encryption methods such as SSL can provide increased protection against hacking attempts and must be used by all kinds of enterprises to safeguard their valuable information.
