I frequently speak with small businesses, and they ask me if they really need to worry about being hacked since they are small. Now, the answer to that is absolutely yes. Small businesses are really low-hanging fruit for hackers since they usually don't have many cybersecurity protections. The fact that they're small isn't really part of the equation anymore, though, since most initial attacks are all automated now, and live hackers often don't even know about the attack until they get alerted by the bots. Give your employees and yourself some cybersecurity awareness training. There's a lot of it out there that's low cost and even free that you can take advantage of that can really help. Next, you should have at least a basic risk assessment done on your business. There will be a cost for this, but if you shop around, you should be able to find something that won't break the bank. You should always be sure your computers have current and up-to-date antivirus software installed. Antivirus software usually isn't very expensive, so be sure you got it. It's very important to back up your files regularly and be sure those backups are going offsite. An offsite backup can save your company if something bad happens at your office. Most small businesses don't even think about this. But you should be sure that you change the default password on your Wi-Fi access point and set up strong encryption for it. And lastly, you should be sure that you have a true commercial-grade firewall in place to help protect your network from compromise.
