On a regular basis, and on every business headline, there is a word about Cyber Security Breaches. The modern day has proved to be a threat and frustrating by professionally and personally affecting the computers. Even, Half of the small enterprises are damaged or attacked with one or the other variety of cyber attack. The known fact is about the awareness and a lack of expert professionals which make small businesses and start-ups, an enticing targets for cybercriminals.
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Here are five things to know about cybersecurity, before starting an entrepreneurship and run it smoothly.
- Internet-of-things (IOT)
The Internet is continuously proving its existence and the most vital mutations are on IOT(internet-Of-Things). The Internet-Of-things, abbreviated as IOT is concerned with the ever-growing needs of networking on things, physical objects which are connected to the IP address of the internet. There will be communication between the objects presented and to the internet-enabled systems and devices.
Not only the new technologies in the era of the internet is bringing up new opportunities but at the same time bringing in the security risks. Due to the reason that security has been an overlooking of their design.
But, to know more about the risks which they represent, first, understand the IOT systems which are there in the businesses. Then, as part of the security measures, and strategies add all IoT systems and list out the known security flaws. All the listed flaws which are passing through the devices have to be protected using firewalls and safeguarded as any other part of the network.
- Data Breaches
There are many similar cyber attacks which businesses should be aware of. The first which comes in line is a data breach. A data breach usually occurs when the cybercriminal infiltrates the information and gets the sensitive information. This can either be done by accessing the computer or detouring the network security remotely. The latter is usually used to target the companies. Even the personal and financial data of the company is used and sold in the black markets. Startups who have their online presence or mobile apps which gather customer data such as CRM, e-commerce are the prime focus for such cyber attacks.
According to the National-Cyber-Security-Alliance, US 60% of small enterprises fail within 6 months after experiencing such attacks.
Even more, cybercriminals look for the flaws in the company’s security such as people, network or systems and make the initial contact and indulge in cyber attacks.
3.Bringing Own devices
Whether it is laptops or mobile phones chances are employees bringing their devices and connecting to the office network on a regular basis. This is regarded as a threat for numerous reasons. Consequently, 72% of IT security experts are concerned about the data damage or loss. But, when using the own devices make sure to follow the following steps in comparison to the others.
- Startups have to make sure that the employees family members don’t access the data which is sensitive.
- Educate and make sure that the whole of the businesses is known about the risks presented and take necessary measures to avoid these.
- Never share the accounts
- Always use different passwords for different applications
- Thoroughly review, understand and implement security controls measures.
- Alternatively, employ multifactor-authentication.
4.Phishing
Everyone understands and knows the danger of clicking a link on the suspicious email. Conversely, even with continuous warnings from an industry and cybersecurity agents, businesses still fall into the track of phishing threats daily. Phishing is the most effective methods among criminals. It is generally a fraudulent activity where cybercriminals obtain sensitive data like passwords, usernames and credit card details by using e-commerce.
If an employee by mistakenly clicks the phishing emails, they are likely to prone into the malware onto their systems. Depending on the targeted businesses, cybercriminals are even trawling web pages and even online profiles to get valuable data which can be used for high trustworthy phishing campaign.
Training and awareness about the phishing are needed to alleviate the danger. Make sure that the employees understood the dangers of such activity and how to identify the phishing email.
Finally, even after providing training employees tend to click a link in the email. To mitigate such risks secure the data with a back-up outside the business network.
- Access control counts
Start-ups should know the infrastructure access and know to which employee they are giving access. As a startup, managers accidentally hand out the critical information accessible to anyone. Today most of the administrations’ services and tools set the rights with the level of accessibility. Through that admin access companies can control who does what on the systems. Allow people to have strong passcodes and protect these passwords all the time. Remove the access to anyone who is not working in the company as soon as they leave. Cover all the non-disclosure clauses and protect them from all possible leaking passwords. Have an agreement with the employees and people involved in the business.
Even after giving access to the Startups, one should consider the below measures also:
- Vulnerability or threats assessments should be done on an annual basis and have vital controls.
- Secure the protection on laptops, desktops, mobile devices and other devices which are connected to the office.
- Security scanning for high-value assets, both at the application level and network level.
- Monitoring the assets that have highly sensitive data or any intellectual information.
- Should have stronger authentication for high-risk and privileged accounts.
Conclusion
Even before starting a company, think about cybersecurity. No matter how much effort the companies put, there is always a vulnerability to different cyber attacks coming each day. Therefore, it is essential to find out the security weak points and take measures to prevent them. These above tips will make Startups to become aware of the worst-case scenarios. However, due to the inexperience and insufficient controls, a Startups might commit mistakes which could endanger their customer security rather than improving it.
So, Startups should have a plan in place and response which must be updated on a timely basis. Above all, cyber attacks can impact the startups but if they manage it accordingly, the threats can be minimized to a certain extent. Remember that, if the team fails in implementing the measures even the organizational security fails. Having said that, security risks will only increase with time. Startups have to start integrating the cybersecurity into their plans instead of worrying about them later. Startups can reduce the possible risks without any high cash outlay if it is done correctly.
