As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep your business as safe as possible and to ensure that all of your data is secured. Whether it’s through the use of security hardware, software or even a third party company to help keep your data away from hackers and cybercriminals, you need a variety of security solutions in order to protect your business and meet regulatory requirements to save yourself from being fined.
Unfortunately, security solutions are often designed for large businesses and, as a result, come with a hefty price tag to match. So to help you out, we’ve put together a couple of digital security solutions that are not only designed for small businesses, but come at a cost that won’t break the bank.
1. Inexpensive Software Solutions
There are actually countless software solutions that are possible to use as a small business. In fact, many consumer-level security solutions are perfectly acceptable to use if your business network is currently quite small. This can usually be scaled to a dozen or more users, but as the data load increases, your internet solution must also change. This means that if you’re going to eventually grow and have two dozen employees or more, you must eventually migrate to a more industry-friendly solution. However, for the time being, paying for consumer-grade firewall and antivirus protection is completely acceptable and often recommended due to how inexpensive it is compared to more advanced industry solutions.
2. A Scalable Network Security Service
There are plenty of network security services out there that can offer scalable solutions for your business. This essentially means that your business will only receive the assistance it needs for and then be upgraded when you’ve hit a certain limit or need a wider range of services. This could be as simple as starting with antivirus and firewall software that is managed by the network security service, then upgrade to a network activity monitoring solution to help stop threats before they happen. It’s important to discuss with their service about your needs before you enter a contract so that you know what type of protection you’re getting and what kind of services they could offer you in the future once you’ve outgrown your current needs.
3. Educating Employees
Although many employees from the current generation are tech-savvy enough to understand how to protect their data, it’s important to educate them on security practices so that their knowledge is up-to-date and relevant to a corporate environment. This means teaching them things such as not leaving their important files or documents in unsecured locations, keeping an eye on their laptop and portable hard drives whenever they’re working out in the field, and not opening suspicious emails that could lead to an infection that takes over the entire office network. Human error and social engineering are two of the most common ways for cybercriminals to break into a system, so educating employees on how to avoid it can be one of the best ways to secure your small business.
