Cybersecurity Tips for Startups
By: Vinny Troja
Most often when first starting, your budget is low, and you are excited to put your idea into motion! With so much to consider, it is all too easy to put information security on the backburner. Thinking you will get around to it later.
But the truth is, you need to be prepared right out of the gate. Especially in this day and age, where there are countless cybersecurity risks around.
Here are 10 tips you can put into action today!
1) Have a Disaster Recorvery Plan
This is so important to start thinking about early in the process. Does your company rely on information systems to operate? A cyberattack can cause a huge amount of damage and bring your business to a screeching halt!
2) Stop That Autofill
Make it a standard practice to disable the autofill password option on your browsers. This way no passwords will be saved, and hackers cannot gain access to a user’s login details.
3) Create Backups
Frequently backing up your website data will allow you to avoid a lot of problems later on down the road. If your website security is breached, you can immediately install the previous working version.
4) Install a Firewall
A firewall is an online security system that monitors the information that is transferred between the web and your internal network.
A firewall can be external or internal. An external firewall is usually a part of a router or server outside of the main network. An internal firewall is a software that constantly scans your device for potential data breaches.
5) Keep Your Software Updated
Hackers are coming up with more and more evolved algorithms and are discovering more security holes to attack through. Make sure your business website software is up to date.
6) Protection of Cloud Resources
New startups often depend on public cloud services such as Google Cloud or Amazon AWS. Though not all of them use the proper security settings for these storage spaces. This means that often containers with client data end up only being protected by a weak password!
Best not to leave private information on a Google Doc with public access!
7) Install Antivirus
Even if you have limited funds to work within the beginning, not installing any type of basic antivirus software is a huge mistake.
There are many business subscriptions for antivirus software that can be pretty affordable, and you can get protection for all your devices. Make sure not to forget your tablets and smartphones!
8) Use Strong Passwords
One simple, yet extremely important thing you can do is use strong passwords. A good rule to go by is if the password is easy for you to remember, then it will be easy for cybercriminals to be able to guess!
There is also a brute force attack where cybercriminals use software that continuously goes through a series of commonly used words and numbers until it guesses your password.
9) Privacy Policy
It is very important to not only protect your data but protect your customer’s data too! Creating a policy for this will ensure your start-up is protected.
Make sure to identify the type of data you are collecting, and how this data will be used.
10) Education
Education is key! Cybersecurity is more about the cost of staying in business. The people in your organization pose the biggest risk. Employees need to understand security threats and the ways they can protect themselves.
Have your employees participate in security awareness training, which will help create a solid and secure foundation for your budding start-up.
In Conclusion
Protect yourself. New technology is developing each day, and unfortunately, this technology is also used to launch strategic cyberattacks.
Use these tips and start protecting your startup now!
Vinny Troia PhD is a Cybersecurity Speaker, Digital Investigator and Published Author. He is CEO of Night Lion Security.
