You have invested your time, resources, and energy into growing your business. As your business grows more successful, it also becomes more vulnerable to many different types of risk. SMART planning can help you keep your business running if disaster strikes.
There are many potential disasters that can harm your business, and you need to continually protect and be prepared to defend yourself as you grow. While focusing on your core business tasks, it is easy to forget about physical security, operational security, cybersecurity, and other “ankle-biters” that can bring down your business.
Here are some SMART ways you can protect your company through proper risk management. You’ll want to take the right steps to protect, prevent, and prepare for the different types of security risks your business may face.
Incorporate Risk-Assessment Policies
It is important to assess and manage that your business is potentially exposed to. As your business grows, you will experience greater challenges based on the scope of the situation, the consequences and risks involved.
Create a comprehensive list that can help you to analyze prospective perils. Do you have chemical protective clothing for workers who are exposed to such risks? You need to invest in the right gear for your employees.
Good leaders establish a learning environment by encouraging their team to take reasonable risks, grow, and develop on their own initiative. Do you delineate the boundaries or prioritize the areas where your team can take the risk? Is it clear what is or is not acceptable?
Be cost-effective: The benefits gained must be worth the effort, resources, risk, and other costs of reaching the milestone. You must be prepared to accept the risks of being different or wrong.
Incorporate Prevention Strategies
There are different prevention strategies that you need to incorporate after risk assessment. Consider taking an audit which should help you in training employees to be security-conscious.
This implies that if the building has several entry points, for example, you can easily designate particular doors just for your employees. Consider installing different security cameras, which should help to monitor your premises.
You may want to consider hiring trained security guards to help protect your workers. But you can only achieve this if you establish whether they work late or not. Do they handle valuables? Your answer to these questions will determine whether or not you should hire a private security company.
Monitor worker’s character and behavior
It is important to monitor employee behavior because every individual shall determine the overall performance of your company. Additionally, employees are prone to cyberattacks. Therefore, regardless of the security measures in place, you may want to train your employees on cybersecurity.
Here are some important tools and SMART tips to help protect your employees and have a cybersecurity system.
Tools to Protect Your Employees and Company
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay. You probably don’t realize how many times you interact with artificial intelligence on a day-to-day basis. It is present in the customer service bots that many companies have integrated.
You can find it in the search engines that you use several times a day without thinking. We’re becoming more adept at using services such as Alexa, Google Home, and the artificial intelligence assistants on our smartphones such as Apple’s Siri.
AI has many great uses and your business is very likely to benefit from it in a number of different ways. AI provides the ability for machines to learn. Being able to use deep learning that will help you to understand social media users to create the most accurate marketing can help companies generate far more sales than using human decision making.
AI has many uses in science and medicine, where it is able to explore data at depths that humans cannot. Investing in hardware for artificial intelligence will help your business grow and develop in new and unforeseen ways. This might well be an area that you should be exploring.
Cybersecurity
Cyber attacks are a growing concern for small businesses. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report, cybercrimes cost businesses $2.7 billion in 2018 alone. Small businesses are attractive targets because they generally lack the security infrastructure of larger businesses.
According to a recent SBA survey, 88% of small business owners felt their business was vulnerable to a cyber attack. Yet many businesses can’t afford professional IT solutions, they have limited time to devote to cybersecurity, or they don’t know where to begin.
Even the biggest names in the tech industry such as Equifax are under the risk of attack. Even your small business might be vulnerable. Protection is therefore vital. And if you do not take the right measures to prevent an attack, you are putting your brand’s reputation on the line.
Start by learning about the most common cyber threats, where your business is vulnerable, and taking steps to improve your cybersecurity. Most businesses are moving towards the cloud, which is storing your information on hardware in a remote physical location. You can then can access that information from any device via the internet.
This trade-off in convenience, speed, and lower costs also has its drawbacks. Losing customer data, especially financial information, can cause significant issues for your company. A study found that 65% of your customer base will lose trust in an organization as a result of the breach.
Don’t put your company at risk and leave your reputation up to chance. Cyber attacks are constantly evolving, so it is important to be aware of the most common types of cyber threats.
Malware
Malware (malicious software) is an umbrella term that refers to software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network. Malware can include viruses and ransomware.
Viruses
Viruses are harmful programs intended to spread from computer to computer (and other connected devices). Viruses are intended to give cybercriminals access to your system.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a specific type of malware that infects and restricts access to a computer until a ransom is paid. Ransomware is usually delivered through phishing emails and exploits unpatched vulnerabilities in software.
Phishing
Phishing is a type of cyber attack that uses email or a malicious website to infect your machine with malware or collect your sensitive information. Phishing emails appear as though they’ve been sent from a legitimate organization or known individual. These emails often entice users to click on a link or open an attachment containing malicious code. After the code is run, your computer may become infected with malware.
How Exposed Are You to Cybersecurity Risks?
A cybersecurity risk assessment can identify where you are vulnerable and help you create a plan of action. Here are some tools and steps to help.
Planning and assessment tools
Whether an employee or outsourcing to an external consultant, there’s no substitute for dedicated IT support. Even if you can’t afford it, you can still take measures to improve your cybersecurity.
FCC Planning Tool
The Federal Communications Commission offers a cybersecurity planning tool to help you build a strategy based on your unique business needs.
Cyber Resilience Review
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cyber Resilience Review (CRR) is a non-technical assessment to evaluate operational resilience and cybersecurity practices. You can either do the assessment yourself, or request an on-site assessment by DHS cybersecurity professionals.
Cyber Hygiene Vulnerability Scanning
DHS also offers free cyber hygiene vulnerability scanning for small businesses. This service can help secure your internet-facing systems from weak configuration and known vulnerabilities. You will receive a weekly report for your action.
Cybersecurity Best Practices
Train Your Employees
Employees and emails are a leading cause of data breaches for small businesses. Training employees on basic internet best practices can go a long way in preventing cyber attacks. Training topics to cover include:
- Spotting a phishing email
- Using good browsing practices
- Avoiding suspicious downloads
- Creating strong passwords
- Protecting sensitive customer and vendor information
Raise Cybersecurity Awareness
Consider displaying materials in your workplace to raise awareness about cybersecurity. The Department of Homeland Security’s “Stop.Think.Connect” campaign offers posters, brochures, and other materials for download.
Maintain Good Cyber Hygiene
Use antivirus software and keep it updated
Make sure each of your business’s computers is equipped with antivirus software and antispyware and updated regularly. Such software is readily available online from a variety of vendors. All software vendors regularly provide patches and updates to their products to correct security problems and improve functionality. Configure all software to install updates automatically.
Secure your networks
Safeguard your Internet connection by using a firewall and encrypting information. If you have a Wi-Fi network, make sure it is secure and hidden. To hide your Wi-Fi network, set up your wireless access point or router so it does not broadcast the network name, known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID). Password protect access to the router.
Use strong passwords
Using strong passwords is an easy way to improve your cybersecurity. Be sure to use different passwords for your different accounts. A strong password includes:
- 10 characters or more
- At least one uppercase letter
- At least one lowercase letter
- At least one number
- At least one special character
Multifactor authentication
Multifactor authentication requires additional information (e.g., a security code sent to your phone) to log in. Check with your vendors that handle sensitive data, especially financial institutions, to see if they offer multifactor authentication for your account.
Protect Sensitive Data and Back-Up the Rest
Back up your data
Regularly back up the data on all computers. Critical data includes word processing documents, electronic spreadsheets, databases, financial files, human resources files, and accounts receivable/payable files. Back up data automatically if possible, or at least weekly, and store the copies either offsite or on the cloud.
Secure payment processing
Work with your banks or card processors to ensure the most trusted and validated tools and anti-fraud services are being used. You may also have additional security obligations related to agreements with your bank or processor. Isolate payment systems from other, less secure programs and do not use the same computer to process payments and surf the Internet.
Control physical access
Prevent access or use of business computers by unauthorized individuals. Laptops can be particularly easy targets for theft or can be lost, so lock them up when unattended. Make sure a separate user account is created for each employee and require strong passwords. Administrative privileges should only be given to trusted IT staff and key personnel.
Work With Experienced People
There are many different industries with different laws and different requirements. When arranging security measures, you must work with experienced professionals. This is true whether you run a financial business, home health care business, an eCommerce business, or a cannabis business that requires specific Cannabis Security Plans.
These professionals help ensure legal practices that cover your business in the event of theft or disaster. Working with experienced people is highly beneficial regardless of your experience. They can offer a different point of view and help you analyze threats differently. They can also offer advice you may not previously consider.
As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to do everything within your means to limit risk, protect your business, and to keep it running smoothly. Understanding the different types of risk will help you limit your risk exposure, have a plan of action in place, and prevent you from doing or saying something you shouldn’t.