Secure your New Business for the Future: Cybersecurity for Entrepreneurs 

If you’re thinking of starting a business or growing your SME this year, you’re probably already preparing for a number of challenges. Load shedding, the weak Rand, and inflation are difficult enough, and now there’s one more risk to navigate: increased risk of cyberattacks.

More than half of all SA businesses have experienced cybersecurity failures, and many of them are smaller enterprises. While you take your business online to serve new clients, you’ll need to keep bad actors away from your new enterprise.

Here’s why your business needs top notch online security and how to get it up and running.

Cybersecurity isn’t just for big companies

One of the biggest misconceptions among business owners is that cyberattacks only happen to large corporates.

It could be because most of the cybercrimes reported in the news tend to be perpetrated against large corporations and banks, but this mistaken belief persists despite being factually untrue. The latest data shows that SMEs are equally at risk – or even more likely to fall victim to a cyberattack.

• Globally, more than 45% of cyberattacks targeted small businesses in 2021
• Many small businesses are forced to close within 6 months of a cyberattack, highlighting the devastating effect that online crimes can have on growing enterprises
• South African business owners who think they may be immune to this global trend are in for a surprise. SA currently ranks sixth in the world for cybercrime density and some experts feel that this figure may be understated with cyber bullying and cyber extortion often going unreported.
• One of the biggest cybersecurity risks within a business is its staff, with almost 98% of breaches occurring due to human error.

As an SME owner or entrepreneur, laying a strong foundation among your staff for your company’s cybersecurity has never been more important.

Here are some strategies to consider.

1. Create a cyber security plan. Every business needs a policy to deal with cyberattack mitigation and a cyber incident response plan to deal with an attack if it takes place.
2. Recognise the threat and train your team. Compromised data is still largely the result of leaks – and that comes down to human error. Training your team on data best practices will help them seal the information perimeter around your business.
3. Do the basics well and go beyond them. A good firewall and antivirus software are essential for every small business but they’re not enough. Encrypted, secure, cloud storage, and a professionally installed IT setup can go a long way to keeping your data safe.
4. Monitor social media and payment gateways. It’s important to be cautious about suspicious social media accounts interacting with your business online. Your social media manager will need to be briefed on the red flags to look out for so that hackers can be spotted before they attack. If your website offers online payment, you need to know that it’s fully secure and encrypted before you process customers’ personal and financial data.

Secure your new business with secure cloud storage

In the event of a cyberattack, having a full backup of your crucial business data in encrypted form can help your SME to recover both financially and in terms of reputation.

To invest in your company’s online safety, browse our cloud storage packages for businesses of all sizes today.