Update: June 2019

Cyber Security jumped to a top ten issue for every business and industry in recent years. All large enterprises are now dramatically increasing their investments in cyber security due to the high-profile attacks this past year. The hackers know this and are now adding small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to their attacks as fast as possible. 

Many executives are struggling on how to evaluate their cyber security technology and best practices.  The following is a Cyber Security Checklist with the top 10 projects you should implement immediately to increase your business protection and reduce your company risk.

Cyber Security Checklist - Top Ten Basic Projects

1. Implement a Password Manager
   Most employees still write passwords on yellow stickies and place them on or in their desks at the office and at home. They typically use a couple of poorly designed passwords on all their business and personal accounts. Password Managers are applications that create, store encrypted passwords and enter them for each employee. They also help your employees create very strong passwords for each business application.

2. Cyber Security Employee Training
   Employees are not aware of most cyber security best practices. You should establish annual cyber security training for all existing and new employees. Well trained employees are one of the least expensive and fastest way to help protect your company.

3. Invest in Remote Wipe Services for all Mobile Devices
   Millions of Smartphones are lost or stolen each year. You don't want your company data and password access to your company found and used by the criminals. There are many vendors that can provide a service to find or wipe clean all the info on your employee smartphones and other mobile devices.

4. Upgrade Internet Routers and Firewalls to Real-time Firewall Monitoring & Reporting
   If your router / firewall hardware is several years old, you should consider upgrading to new hardware and real-time monitoring services.

5. Add VPN Security to all WiFi Internet Connections
   Employees that use unsecured WiFi connections are being attacked every day. The free Starbucks, McDonalds and the Airport WiFi systems can be used to break into your employee devices and your business systems. You can now add low-cost VPN technology to encrypt all your employee WiFi internet connections to your business.

6. Invest in GPS Tracking Systems
   It's expensive to lose and replace company laptops, smartphones and tablets. You can add (Global Positioning Systems) GPS tracking apps to all your devices to help find misplaced or stolen devices.

7. Encrypt Data on all Laptops
   All your laptop disc drives should have their data encrypted. This especially important if you store customer financial and credit card information. All Apple laptops and desktops have a built-in encryption option. You can also buy highly-rated encryption software for your Windows and Android products.

8. Complete a Mini Cyber Security Audit ASAP
   If you are overwhelmed by cyber security, you should at least have a quick cyber security audit completed for your company as soon as possible to identify any minor or major problems in your security. It will also give you a short-term plan for improving your cyber security.

9. Backup All Data Remotely
   Some Hackers' goals are to just cause trouble or to get even with your company. The Sony hack by North Korea is a high profile example. It's more likely that an ex-employee does this to your company, than a foreign country. However, it's very important for so many reasons to have all your data backed up at a remote site. You now have many options to backup, encrypt your data and store it off site.

10. Invest in Cyber Security Insurance
    Cyber attacks have become a "when" and not "if" risk issue for your business. Talk to your insurance broker about adding a Cyber Security Insurance policy for your business.

Important Warning to all Businesses

All of these cyber security projects can be implemented perfectly and you can still be hacked these days. However, the more protection you implement now will reduce your risk and hopefully cause a hacker to look at another company to attack.

Small Business Cyber Security Risks and Ransomware

Small Business executives also need to wake up to the high risk of not protecting their company from cyber attacks and ransomware. Most executives still tell me that they are too small to be attacked. The bad guys may have already taken your data… you just might not know about it. The following statistic is from a recent Cyber Security workshop I attended:

Please contact us if you have any questions or need some help.

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