How Small Businesses Can Protect Themselves Online

Last updated on April 17th, 2023 at 12:54 am

Small businesses are at a huge risk because they are such easy prey for cybercriminals. Without proper protection online and without a decent grounding in best practices and digital security training, your business is exceptionally vulnerable, and you will be preyed on because of it. Add in everyday IT issues that could disrupt your business at a moment’s notice, and you start to see the full picture. Small businesses cannot afford a dedicated IT team, but that doesn’t mean that you are without options. There are many ways you can better protect your business online:

Hire IT Support

There are many excellent IT support services available that provide you with predictable IT support that reduces your business risk, decreases distractions caused by IT issues, and boosts the productivity and security of your business. Typically such services can also include data backup and disaster recovery, helping you keep the digital side of your business in full working order, protected, and, in the worst-case scenario, even provides you with a means to recover after an attack.

Invest in Website Security

Your website needs to be secure. There are multiple ways to make it secure. You need to:

• Keep your website up to date and secure.
• Invest in security software or security plugins to better protect your website.
• Prevent users from uploading files to your website.
• Install an SSL certificate.
• Use HTTPS encryption, which must be renewed every year.
• Use unique and secure passwords for login.

Train Your Team in Digital Security

Training your team in digital security is another very simple and easy way to better protect your small business. One of the biggest threats to even the largest corporations out there is user error or endpoint weakness. These are both caused by employees unknowingly downloading a virus either at work or at home (and then connecting the infected device to your network at work).

The good news is that you will be doing yourself, your employees, and your company a favour by just investing in a few simple training sessions. These can be guided through online help tools, or you can invest in a proper training session with a professional.

Always Use Unique Usernames and Passwords

If your employees need access to your website or another digital account, make sure they are given a unique username and a unique password. This way, rather than having them choose their own passwords (which will often be the same passwords they have used elsewhere), it will enforce a higher standard of logins. Not only that, but you can better restrict what your employees have access to when they each have their own login, as opposed to using your login details.

Back-Up What You Can

You will want to back up the key parts of your business offline and update those back-ups regularly so that you have a saved version of your business’s online presence available in case of corruption, hacking, or deletion.