These cyberattacks can also result in financial harm, a diminished brand reputation and even potential legal complications for your company. So, whether you handle digital asset management with your internal team or delegate it externally, we bring you some solid strategies to increase your cybersecurity defenses and secure your business this cybersecurity awareness month.
In this blog, we’ll examine some of the ways small and medium businesses can protect their sensitive data and enhance their security operations. We’ll also discuss compliance and law adherence to ensure your business runs securely, is protected and follows your industry’s best practices.
Prepare Your Business with These Special Tips this Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Boost Your Data Protection Practices
According to IT Governance USA, almost 7 billion data breaches have affected the real estate, IT and healthcare sectors in 2024, making data protection a legal requirement to implement to avoid an increasingly worrying number of incidents. To keep your systems secure and running up to date, it’s a good idea to ensure robust data practices to protect sensitive information from loss, corruption and cyberattacks, no matter what kind of business you have. Here are simple but effective ways to protect your info:
- Use Strong Passwords: Make sure all your passwords are tough to crack. Mix it up with letters, symbols and numbers.
- Choose the Right Tools: Use the latest password managers and security software to keep your data safe. Pro Tip: If you work in healthcare, choose tools that focus on protecting patient data and complying with patient data protection laws.
- Use 2FA: 2FA, or two-factor authentication, is a management security method that requires two forms of identification to access resources and data. To fortify your business, you can use and link apps like Google authentication tools.
- Implement Data Encryption: Data encryption converts your data from readable for anybody into a special format, making it unreadable unless the recipient has an access key; this will allow you to protect your sensitive client data and share it safely.
- Integrate Encryption into Disaster Recovery Plans: This means protecting your data in the event of a disaster so you—and only you—can recover it while ensuring regulatory compliance.
- A Helping Hand from HOCS: We ensure your software is always updated with the latest fixes and improvements while providing automated update management to minimize disruptions and keep your business running smoothly with the best IT support available.
Promote Cybersecurity Culture
Keeping your team informed and vigilant against cyber threats can make the difference when a real threat comes your business’s way. Here’s how you can easily uplift your business’s security posture:
- Continuous Education on Security: Promote ongoing education and adherence to security protocols as part of your business culture. Pro Tip: Use interactive training sessions and gamification to increase staff engagement and information retention, especially if you direct these sessions to schools and children under 18.
- Phishing Awareness Training: Identify any phishing attempts—like those scam emails you receive—and stress the importance of secure practices through cybersecurity certifications. Pro Tip: Include actual examples of phishing emails to help users recognize potential threats.
- Define Incident Reporting Protocols: Provide clear steps for your team to report any suspected security threats they come across for swift action and provide IT support if needed. Pro Tip: Develop a simple, accessible reporting system to encourage prompt reports from your staff.
Keep Your System Security Updated
Maintaining up-to-date system security is non-negotiable for small and medium businesses across various sectors. This will not only increase your security capabilities but also increase your efficiency, compatibility and even costs, as old systems can be a financial burden due to more optimization issues. Here’s how you can start implementing better security practices within your organization:
- Regular Software Updates: Automate updates where possible to minimize disruption and ensure timely implementation.
- Implement Industry Best Practices: Apply security measures across your organization that comply with your industry’s security standards. Pro Tip: Research and identify your sector risks and challenges, such as ransomware in healthcare or cyberattacks targeting financial records and property management data in real estate businesses.
- Conduct Periodic Security Assessments: Plan and execute regular risk assessments to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
- Integrate Backups into Your Cybersecurity Strategy: Include regular data backup practices in your organization’s overall cybersecurity planning, focusing on cloud-based storage to mitigate cyberattack risks.
- Implement VPNs: Use virtual private networks (VPNs) to improve the security of remote and hybrid work environments and protect your organization’s sensitive data. This helps you create a secure connection when your workers operate in public networks like the ones in their homes or a café.
Compliance and Standards Adherence
By adhering to industry standards, you will maintain a trusted market reputation and excellent customer satisfaction while avoiding being shot down by legal issues. Here’s how you can improve your regulatory compliance:
- Regulatory Compliance: Ensure you meet specific industry standards, such as CMS, HIPAA or FERPA. Pro Tip: Use compliance checklists and third-party audits to maintain and prove adherence to your stakeholders and customers.
- Network Security Measures: Take measures like firewalls—a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to your computer—and update your system using your industry’s best practices. Pro Tip: Regularly review your firewalls and security settings to adapt to evolving cyber threats.
- Monitor Cybersecurity Trends: Look out for emerging cybersecurity threats within your sector and keep your business and team updated on these trends and how they can protect your organization.
HOCS Consulting: Your Cybersecurity Awareness Month Partner
We are proud to be trusted partners for multiple industries, including healthcare, education, real estate, and many more. We offer tailored IT solutions and support across the country, and we love to work closely with small to medium-sized businesses to create strategies that align with their goals, providing advice on processes and selecting the right software and hardware.
We implement secure, reliable and cost-effective technology solutions to enhance the educational experience. Additionally, we manage wireless networks to provide secure and cloud-based solutions for multiple institutions and ensure compliance with national laws like CMS, HIPAA and FERPA.
This cybersecurity awareness month and beyond, HOCS Consulting is here to ensure your IT systems are ready to support your organization and provide exceptional support for your customers and staff. Speak to us today to learn more about preparing for the new school year.
Get in touch with HOCS Consulting today for a free cybersecurity assessment.
