In the demand of a technologically driven market, a small business’s networks and systems are the crown jewel of a company's operations — they store all of your greatest assets and are vital to maintaining business success.
In order to protect that information, a thorough cyber security practice is the only way to ensure the complete safety of your most valuable systems and data.
Cyber security is, at its most basic, the practice of protecting data, systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. While the word digital can often seem non-tangible or hypothetical, imagine all of the small business processes that take place online, between servers, and through computer programs.
All of those processes and the confidential information involved is at risk when proper cyber security is not in place.
What Cyber Criminals Want
Cyber attacks are often aimed to access, change, or destroy sensitive information; obtain money from users; and interrupt the basic workings of normal business processes. Nearly half of cyber attacks are targeted towards small businesses, yet only 14% of small businesses rate their cyber security to be highly effective.
You have to protect your crown jewels from invaders, so making cyber security a business priority is essential to prevent irreparable damage to a small business’s integrity which includes your reputation as well as your data and systems.
What Business Leaders Need to Know
1. Security is a process – not a project.
Cyber security is not one-and-done deal, because every day new attacks are being used. Luckily, methods of combating these attacks are also evolving, so updating your security with your service provider is essential for your cyber safety.
2. Humans are the most vulnerable and exploitable attack surface!
Simple and sophisticated social engineering methods that target your people continue to be the weapon of choice for cyber criminals. Understanding the importance of cyber security awareness will help you – and your users – become less vulnerable to cyber attack.
3. There's always a balance between security and usability.
If you want high security, your users might need to go an extra step to access data. However, taking this step might dramatically reduce the chance of a huge attack. The compromise might seem a bit petty at first, but it’s worth it in order to be confident of your cyber safety.
Tools for Cyber Security Protection
While the threat of attacks that will compromise your data can seem overwhelming, there are many tools that cyber security services use to protect access to your company information and IT systems.
Some of these cyber security tools are:
| Anti-virus | Software that scans devices for known viruses |
| Anti-spam | System that scans emails for known patterns |
| Digital abnormal behavior detection | Scans network for user action that is abnormal to detect attacks |
| Authentication and authorization | Usernames and password systems that allow only your users access to specific information |
| Firewalls and Intrusion Prevention Systems | Protects your private network from public networks |
| Vulnerability management | Identifies vulnerabilities in order to fix them |
| Penetration testing | Tests for vulnerabilities in order to fix them |
| Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) | Observes normal patterns to alert when those patterns are broken |
| User training | Education of individual users on how to avoid viruses is one of the best ways to prevent attacks |
Layering Cyber Security
Knowing that your crown jewels are under threat of attack, you wouldn’t simply put them in a locked chest and trust that they are safe. You would take the precaution of putting them in safe, hiring guards, locking doors, and having security patrol.
Your cyber security should be approached the same way. There is never one single tool that can guarantee safety. A successful cyber security approach is a multi-layered one.
By incorporating multiple methods of cyber security, you are placing a layer of protection on all sides, at every door, and throughout each hallway. With multiple layers of protection, information and digital data is better protected, no matter which direction the cyber attack approaches.
Since cyber attackers are always changing and using new methods of attack, it is also important for small businesses to update their cyber security in order to ensure that their information is effectively protected.
With your valuable assets at risk, you wouldn’t want your guards to be at combat with wooden bows and arrows. You would want the newest technology to put up a fight. Staying on top of cyber security reduces the risk of cyber attack.
What Can Accent Do?
We provide all cyber security services, from the most basic services to the most advanced. We use industry’s most top-notch tools in order to confidently incorporate systems that will provide positive results for our clients.
We also offer a security review in order to provide recommendations that will bring our clients to a better cyber security standing.
Contact us at 800-481-4369 to discuss your cyber security approach and find out how you can take the steps to thoroughly protect your business.
