Small Business News – Cyber Security

Outside of Brexit, cyber security has been dominating the news in regards to small businesses this month. A few thoughts…

Imagine you had a building full of incredibly valuable documents. In fact, imagine your entire business depended on the safety of these documents. Customer lists, bank details, business strategies, new innovations – you name it, it’s all on these files.

OK, now imagine never locking the door. Ever. Crazy, isn’t it? But that is exactly what an alarming number of small businesses are doing with their electronic data. Business In The Community have just released a report on cyber-security, and it makes for extremely troubling reading.

According to the report, called “Would You Be Ready For A Cyber Attack?” a shocking one in three small businesses in the UK have no cyber security strategy in place at all, and 77% have no policy regarding data system access. With over two thousand cyber crimes reported to the City Of London Police in 2018, this is a serious problem.

The report polled 1003 owners of small (fewer than 40 staff) and medium-sized (headcount of less that 250) businesses, with 80% of respondents belonging to the former category. BITC has given advice on improving cyber security among the small business sector, and has also called on larger businesses to do more to help their small suppliers, as this is beneficial to both parties and need not be complicated or expensive. They have also urged small businesses to implement more stringent security methods, from enabling two-step authentication for systems to ensuring all anti-virus software is up to date on all machines. It is also worth looking at taking out cyber insurance in case the worst happens – although this won’t do anything to protect you, it can at least soften the blow in the event of a serious data breach.

But as with most things in business, the real key to cyber security is in comprehensive and effective staff training. Teach your employees how to keep data secure and how to spot malware and phishing attacks. Implement a strict data access control regime, and stress its importance. You will never be able to be 100% secure, but it’s not difficult to minimise risk. And the consequences of not doing so could be every bit as drastic as never locking that door.

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