How to simplify cybersecurity for small businesses: Strategies and best practices
If someone deleted your small business's data, could you remain profitable? If someone
permanently removed the most important files at your company, would you be able to
keep your doors open?
These are important questions for small businesses and can feel overwhelming.
Cybersecurity threats to watch for and solutions you can implement
Data breaches can have devastating consequences. For a small business, that can mean exposing your valuable intellectual property or unintentionally leaking your customers' private information, resulting in a loss of customer trust and damage to your reputation. Knowing what you're up against gives you a chance to avoid these consequences.
Phishing: The most common attack
Phishing scams, which are the most common type of cyberattack, appear to be from a legitimate source but trick you into revealing sensitive data or downloading malware. The attackers try to confuse your team or drum up a sense of urgency so that your employees make a mistake. Unfortunately, it takes only a single click to compromise your system. Phishing can take the form of more than just email. Attackers have used SMS, phone calls, and even deepfakes on video calls to fool people and carry out the attacks.
Solutions:
Provide regular employee security training
Run phishing-simulation tests
Choose a secure business email solution with advanced phishing and spam protection
Third party vulnerabilities: An emerging risk
It's important for all small business owners to remember that any third-party service that has access to your data must be part of your security considerations. In what is known as a supply-chain attack, hackers can go after AI chatbots and other third-party vendors to break into companies' systems. Chatbots need a high degree of access to a company's data to handle work autonomously, compounding the damage in the event of a breach.
Solutions:
Perform vendor security assessments
Require SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance from suppliers
Use encrypted business cloud storage and a secure AI assistant for your team
Weak passwords: An easy strike
Not all hacks rely on new, cutting-edge attacks. Using weak passwords to secure business accounts such as passwords that are easily guessed, reused, or not backed up by two-factor authentication is like leaving your office doors unlocked at the end of each day. It takes only one weak password to put your network at risk.
Solutions:
Enforce strong password policies
Require MFA on all accounts
Use a secure business password manager
Human error: Exploiting a weak link
Human error is the number one cause of data breaches for all businesses. Any team member handling sensitive data plays a key role in protecting it.
Solutions:
Provide regular security awareness training
Apply least-privilege access by default
Use a business VPN for remote access
Ready to secure your business?
Proton makes cybersecurity simple for small businesses.
Get built-in encryption, advanced tools, and secure permission control, no training required.
What to do right now: Top cybersecurity solutions for small businesses
Cybersecurity doesn't have to be overwhelming. Most attacks exploit basic mistakes, which means that following a few key cybersecurity best practices can dramatically reduce your vulnerability. At Proton, we recommend an easy-to-implement, layered approach that covers people, processes, and technology
Train every team member to play a part
The best place to start is with your people. Creating a culture of cybersecurity awareness goes a long way in preventing a data breach or hack at your company. This means teaching them how to handle sensitive information carefully, secure their accounts, identify phishing attacks, and more. This job never stops, and if you do it correctly, then all of your employees will act as safeguards.
Don’t store data you don’t need
The single best way to prevent the leak of sensitive data is not to keep it in the first place. If you don't have information or access to it, it's almost impossible to expose it. This mentality should permeate your approach to security and data collection. If data isn't essential for your business to deliver service, you shouldn't collect it. If data isn't essential for one of your team members to get their work done, they shouldn't have access to it. This reduces the likelihood of a breach and minimizes the damage one could do.
Encrypt your data
Your small business's data is safest when it's encrypted. Business cloud storage and other tools that use end-to-end encryption ensure that it is encrypted at every step and in such a way that only you can access it. This way, if your service provider suffers an attack, your data will remain securely encrypted.
Secure your accounts
All accounts that give access to your network or business's data should be protected by a strong, unique password and multi-factor authentication. No exceptions. Password managers, passkeys, and hardware 2FA keys all facilitate account security. This way, even if a password is weak or exposed, there's an extra layer of protection to prevent an account takeover.
Use a password manager
A business password manager can make it easy for your employees to create strong, unique passwords for each account or manage passkeys. It can also make life easier for your security team, letting them require password resets, identify accounts that aren't using 2FA, close accounts for people who have left the company, and more.
Beware of links and attachments and spam
Don’t click on links or download attachments in emails, text messages, or social media from unknown senders. Don’t open spam messages or respond to them. By replying to spam emails or SMS (for example, hitting unsubscribe or texting STOP), you’re only letting the spammers know that your email address or phone number is active. Delete and report them. Opening emails can also allow email trackers to track you across the web.
Use a zero-trust approach
Zero trust means that no person or device is trusted inside a network by default. In a zero-trust environment, a user will be granted minimal access to a system after they verify their identity. A system will never "trust" that a user is who they say they are: It will always verify. When you use zero-trust security, everyone accessing your business network has their identity verified before they can access systems, apps, and data.
Control access to your network with a VPN
A business VPN can let your employees securely access your company resources from anywhere in the world. Dedicated servers and private gateways let you restrict access so only approved devices can log in to your network. Assign and segment permissions so employees only see what they need.
Patch and update systems
Apply software updates promptly to close known vulnerabilities and use automated updates for company devices. Keep your computer or phone operating systems, browsers, browser plug-ins, and other apps updated to the latest versions with security patches.
Ensure your data backups are secure
Keep encrypted backups of critical data in the cloud and on premises. Automate full, incremental, and differential backups at regular intervals, so that you can revert to the last version without any significant losses, if the need to do so ever arises. And make sure you test your restoration procedures regularly to ensure they work.
Why trust Proton?
At Proton, your security is our top priority. We believe that transparency is the only way to earn the trust of our community
The power of open source
All Proton apps are open source and have been independently audited and verified by third-party experts. Anyone can see and verify that our apps do what we claim.
Gold-standard certifications: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001
Proton is ISO 27001-certified and has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit. This provides third-party validation that we systematically assess and address risks, implement comprehensive security controls, and continuously improve our security practices.
End-to-end encryption
Proton’s suite of end-to-end encrypted tools safeguard your organization and support your team. Proton’s encrypted tools help you protect sensitive data and ensure that the only people who can access your data are you and the people you choose.
Empower your business with Proton Business Suite
Unlike other popular providers, Proton Mail doesn’t (and can’t) scan or share your email with third parties.
Proton Drive’s encrypted cloud storage lets you securely store, access, and share important files across devices.
Docs in Proton Drive is an end-to-end encrypted online document editor that lets you gather input and edits from others in real time.
Proton VPN protects your remote workforce and ensures safe access to company resources from around the world.
Proton Pass is an encrypted password manager that helps your team securely create, share, and manage login credentials.
Share calendars, view availability, and seamlessly switch between time zones while our encryption keeps your plans private.
Simplify security for your team
Proton encrypts your business's data by default, meaning you're always in control. Get easy-to-use security that you can deploy instantly, no training required.
