How to Determine What Level of Cybersecurity Your Small Business Needs

You and fellow stakeholders in your organization have concluded that you need cybersecurity. But what’s still unknown is just how much protection is enough. You also may not have a clear idea of what level of cybersecurity is too much, to the point that it’s negatively affecting your bottom line.

Determining the right balance of security and budget can be a tricky process. Here are some of the things to consider when determining cybersecurity coverage:

Establish the Importance of Taking Cybersecurity Seriously

Cybersecurity should be taken seriously; the financial and reputational risk of an incident is high. Everyone in your company should be aware of the consequences of criminals breaking into the system.

Hackers could copy sensitive information such as personal details about customers. They might hold your business hostage, encrypting your data until you pay a ransom. Employees may not even have a place to work if hackers have vandalized or shut down all the computers and networks.

Define Risk

Understand the risk and define it in terms that everyone across your company can understand, from customer service with little computer knowledge to workers in more technical and data-driven positions. In your business, the main risk could be the theft of intellectual property. Or, the problem may have more to do with protecting the huge amounts of data you store on customers.

For many organizations, the biggest threat they face is that their operations might have to shut down until computer security professionals can find out what hackers did during a security breach and what will be needed to bring it back online, safely.

The backups themselves might be compromised, indicating more time needed to sort out the problem.

Assess Your Current Level of Protection Against Hackers

Before you can work on improving your cybersecurity, an assessment of your current level of protection is in order. Knowing the health of your system will point the way to what needs upgrading first.

For example, you have some computers connected to the network that don’t need to be online. Some of your systems would be better off if air-gapped, with no hard connection to the Internet or internal networks.

Consider all details of your security setup, even if they might seem trivial. You know that your employees should be changing their passwords regularly, and if there is no mandate from IT to take care of this task now, it’s a sign that you will need to educate your workers on security protocols.

So, a review of your company’s onboarding process for new members of the team will illustrate the changes you need in your cybersecurity efforts.

Define the End Goal to Protect Your Business

There’s not much of a point in devising a customized cybersecurity system to protect your business if you don’t have an end goal in mind.

Your end goal could include setting up a new, state-of-the-art firewall and devising a BYOD policy about whether employees can use their personal smartphones and other equipment to do company business.

Another worthy goal for businesses large and small is to create a robust backup system and a plan that goes with it to safeguard you against ransomware attacks that hold data hostage in exchange for money. You’ll have a better idea of what the end goal should be after you meet with IT security professionals and brainstorm with your team about what’s missing in your defenses.

Where Will Your Cybersecurity Be Located?

When considering your budget, one of the key questions will have to do with where your cybersecurity should be. If your IT team is up to the task, you can set up your cybersecurity system on your servers. But that will require constant monitoring as well as the need for staff to be ready for routine maintenance and upgrades. You may not be able to accurately predict the amount of time and resources your team will need to do this vital work in-house.

Another option is to work with third-party cybersecurity risk management professionals. They can help you set up a cloud services solution so your protection stays robust under constant supervision by the cloud provider’s IT team.

A benefit to locating your cybersecurity offsite is your IT budget will be more predictable. You will have the peace of mind that comes from knowing professionals with years of experience are focusing on your protection.

Expert Advice on Addressing the Proper Level of Cybersecurity for Your Business

Recognizing that your business needs to shore up its cybersecurity defenses is just the first step in safeguarding your network, intellectual property, and sensitive data. Threats from criminal hackers will always be with us. Instead of trying to go it alone, it’s a good idea to partner with IT professionals. Get in touch with Millennia’s cybersecurity risk management experts to get help in assessing your organization’s weaknesses and setting up a bespoke cybersecurity program today.