How Small Businesses Can Improve Their Cybersecurity

Updated on November 11, 2024.

Small businesses can improve their cybersecurity by training their employees on cybersecurity awareness, keeping software up to date, regularly backing up data and following the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP). Organizations of all sizes can suffer catastrophic effects from cyber attacks, but the effects on small businesses can be especially devastating since most of these businesses are ill-prepared. Unprepared small businesses may experience tremendous financial consequences, and damage to their reputation and productivity if they were to suffer a cyber attack.

Continue reading to learn how your small business can improve its cybersecurity by following best practices and investing in the right tools. 

The importance of cybersecurity for your small business

Most small businesses have a misbelief that they won’t be targeted by a cyber attack because they’re not on a cybercriminal’s radar, but this is not true. Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report found that small businesses are the number one target and represent 43% of all data breaches. Additionally, Verizon’s 2021 SMB Data Breaches Report found that Small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) spend $826 to $653,587 on cybersecurity incidents. Financial consequences like these can leave small businesses bankrupt and cause them to go out of business, making it important for small businesses to take steps toward improving their cybersecurity.

6 cybersecurity tips for small businesses

Here are six tips each small business should implement to keep their business safe from cyber threats.

1. Train your employees on cybersecurity awareness

Employees can be your weakest link if they aren’t trained in spotting common cyber threats or practicing basic cybersecurity best practices. Every-sized business must take steps to train its employees so they don’t fall victim to threats that could place your organization at risk of suffering a breach. Some best practices to teach your employees include:

2. Keep software and Operating Systems (OS) up to date

Software and OS updates are important because they patch existing security vulnerabilities, add new security features, fix bugs and improve performance. It’s important that when a new update becomes available, every employee updates their software or OS right away. Failing to update software can leave backdoors open for cybercriminals to exploit and infect your business’s network.

3. Regularly back up data

If your business suffers a breach, you want to have backups of your most important information. Failing to regularly back up your data can lead to you losing your business’s most confidential data forever without being able to get it back. Ensure that all of the data you back up is stored in an encrypted location so that no one without authorization can access it. 

4. Follow the principle of least privilege

The principle of least privilege is a cybersecurity concept in which employees are given just enough network access to the information and systems they need to do their jobs and no more than that. This ensures that employees within your business only have access to the information and systems they need to complete their job duties. 

Oftentimes, employers make the mistake of giving employees too many unnecessary privileges that increase their attack surface. Ensuring that employees have just enough privileges can help decrease your business’s attack surface, making it less likely for an employee to misuse their privileges or accidentally leak data. 

5. Invest in a password manager

Password managers enable you and your employees to create, securely store and share passwords and passkeys with ease. Every employee is provided a secure password vault that can only be accessed using a master password, their biometrics or Single Sign-On (SSO). By investing in a password manager for your small business you can ensure that each employee is using strong passwords to protect business accounts from unauthorized access. 

6. Enforce the use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

While protecting accounts with strong passwords is important, it’s just as important to enable MFA for each account where it’s available as an option. Even if a cybercriminal got ahold of an employee’s password through a data breach, they would still be unable to access their account because they wouldn’t be able to verify the identity of who owns the account. A little-known benefit to using a business password manager like Keeper® is that it can also generate and store Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) codes for accounts. This not only makes the account more secure but also simplifies a user’s login experience by not requiring them to juggle multiple applications.

Protect your small business from cyber attacks with Keeper

Don’t make the mistake of believing that your small business has no data worth stealing because cybercriminals still see you as their number one target. Avoid being an easy target by investing in a password manager today. Keeper’s business password manager is designed for small businesses and helps you safeguard your company’s passwords in a zero-trust, zero-knowledge and end-to-end encrypted vault.