Blog Cyber Security Tips for Small Businesses

1. Use a firewall

Enabling a firewall will shield your network from intruders looking to exploit vulnerabilities. It helps monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic, and blocks any suspicious activity. Your IT team should be able to set up and manage firewalls easily or you can outsource this to an IT management company.

2. Password management software

Using different passwords for different online accounts and changing them regularly is recommended. While most people are aware of this, it isn’t always a high priority. This is where password management software can help. It will allow users to generate different secure passwords for each site they use and auto-populate them when logging in.

3. Employee training

More than 80% of data breaches are caused from employees unknowingly installing malware. Training on identifying cyber scams, including phishing emails is necessary for reducing the risk of a cyber attack.

4. Implement frameworks

Frameworks are a great way to implement structured security measures within your business to address security risks and put preventative actions in place. ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials are recommended examples of best practise frameworks for IT security, depending on your business size and industry.

5. Malware identification

Programs and plugins are widely available to automatically identify potential risks. For example, they scan email attachments for malware and viruses. This software will then remove or isolate the threat to save your network from an attack.

6. Permissions

One essential part of keeping your organisation secure is to only share files with trusted users, who have had the appropriate training. Knowing who has access to what and minimising who can perform administrator actions will reduce the possibility of a threat.

7. Encryption

Encrypted files have a special key that needs to be decoded for them to be read. Sensitive information such as passwords and customer data should be encrypted, this is especially important to prevent a GDPR breach. 

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