The mindset of many small businesses out there is that “why would an attacker come after my business when they can go after the likes of Amazon, eBay, PayPal and so on. My business is nothing compared to the HUGE amounts of money hackers can get from those sites.”

The reality is that small businesses most certainly are not safe in the world of cybercrime – for attackers they are viewed as easy pickings for a quick pay day. A cyber incident can result in stolen data, diminished customer confidence, reputational harm, compliance penalties, legal fees and even business shutdown.

As your business begins to grow you will probably be thinking about hiring more team members, moving into a bigger space and trying to reduce your costs while increasing efficiency amongst an array of other things, but there is often one thing that gets left behind and that is “cybersecurity”.

In reality though when growing your business through all of these methods, your level or cybersecurity should be on the top of your agenda. As you grow with more devices and basic systems you have a host of vulnerabilities in your network which are ready for cybercriminals to attack.

Setting some resource aside for cybersecurity is a must if you want your business to succeed. For today’s blog we have summarized 5 of the most common cyber-security mistakes we see and what we advise to mitigate against them.

1- Disregarding security awareness training

The biggest weakness in almost every organization’s cybersecurity chain are the teams that they employ. A lack of staff awareness of the latest cyber security threats can be very costly for business owners – all it takes is one rogue click on an email and one of your team could have just downloaded the latest piece of ransomware onto your network or had their log in credentials stolen by attackers.

One of the only ways to combat these threats is to train your teams, and as such here at Ctelecoms we have written several blogs on how to spot and protect against new forms of phishing.

2- Having poor permission protocols

When first starting out it isn’t unusual for small business to have networks that bring together users and their data into the same place. But as your business continues to scale, pooling users and data together like this can bring an array of problems.

To ensure sound protection for your corporate emails and data, you need to properly segment your networks to ensure only the correct people have access to the correct data. There is no need for your marketing team to have access to confidential HR files, and so segmenting your network should be at the forefront of your to-do list.

3- A lack of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies

As you’re continuing to grow your business you may see the benefits of having a BYOD policy – this can reduce your hardware costs significantly and means your teams can take their work outside of the office. This does also mean that all of your important business information can also walk out the door along with your employees at the end of the day.

If you have a BYOD policy already, it is vital that you define a clear set of guidelines about what is and isn’t allowed to enter the network. If employees are using their own devices, they should all be using two-factor authentication to access their accounts and should avoid using public unsecure Wi-Fi networks. If, however, your staff are bound to be connected to the internet off your VPN, you should absolutely have a robust cyber security solution, like Cisco Umbrella, in place. Umbrella offers sound protection for users both on and off your VPN.

4- Not having a strong backup solution in place

The unprecedented rise in the number of ransomware attacks hitting SMBs, you should truly prepare yourself by having a reliable backup solution in place. Our Complete Backup & Disaster Recovery solution prevents valuable business downtime, backing your data up in to the cloud, allowing us to replicate your servers in a matter of minutes should you lose access to your files whether due to hardware failure, ransomware, accidental deletion or any other reason.

5- Trying to Do It All On Your Own

The cybersecurity skills shortage is no joke. Whether you're a small business that lacks any security skills at all, or a larger outfit that needs help enhancing certain areas like penetration testing, security monitoring or incident response, doing more with less just isn't going to work.

Partnering with a managed security services provider like Ctelecoms is a viable option. But wait! We not only deliver world-class cyber and physical security solutions, we also provide you with the right tools to help promote productivity, streamline your business operations and more. We’ve helped dozens of businesses in Saudi Arabia to accomplish their goals while keeping them safe in a world where cyber security is a top priority.

To learn more about how Ctelecoms can help YOU with all IT and productivity-related matters, get in touch with our expert team.