5 Practical Ways To Improve Cybersecurity Without a Budget

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It’s often thought that good Cybersecurity is out of reach until your startup or business reaches a certain point because good Cybersecurity means a healthy budget. 

While a budget is necessary, you can do lots to secure your business right from the beginning that doesn’t require much of a budget at all. 

Here are 5 Cybersecurity activities you can do without much of a budget.

Choosing Vendors Wisely

These days in small businesses, it’s quite common to choose cloud-based vendors for everything from an email provider to a CRM to processing credit cards. Reviewing the Cybersecurity features these vendors offer (or don’t offer) and how they could impact your business’s cyber risk can help significantly yet not cost you anything other than time.

Research their stance on Cybersecurity and what Cybersecurity features they offer. Consider what information you’ll be putting in that service, or what access you’ll be granting to it, and whether the features make you confident and comfortable that the cyber risks of using the vendor are managed well.

To be even more thorough, assess the cyber risk each new vendor poses to your business after considering the Cybersecurity features they provide. If this risk is higher than what you’re willing to accept, it might be time to look at alternative vendors.

Bolster Account Security

Something else that doesn’t cost much more than time is bolstering the security of any online accounts. Turning on any available Cybersecurity features such as two-factor authentication can be quickly done but will make a difference.

Be Mindful of Application Security

If your business or startup is developing software, then train yourself and your employees on secure coding practices and ensure Cybersecurity is baked into the software’s design and planning. 

If there is a task your application needs to do that is too risky or too expensive to secure yourself properly (such as accepting credit cards), consider using a vendor to help do that task for you. 

Just remember to do your homework on the vendor you choose. They should help you reduce the cyber risk to your business, not add to it.

Encrypt Confidential Data

Every business has confidential data, and these days it doesn’t take much to encrypt it. Most operating systems include some hard drive encryption, and there are other types of software on the market to encrypt information that you need to store or send; some are even free. Again, do your homework on whatever you choose.

Protect Your Computers

It doesn’t take much other than time to enable the firewall, keep updating operating systems and software when patches and updates come out, set good passwords, screen locks, removing any software that’s not needed, and so on. 

Also, investing in a good antivirus is a small price to pay to catch any malware that may have accidentally found its way onto a computer.

Hire and Train Good People

There is a lot out there written on the human Cybersecurity risks. Building a Cybersecurity culture can not only effectively reduce human risks, but it can also require a minimal budget if you can get creative. 

Hiring and training good people also includes hiring security-conscious people and continually training them on the risks they pose to the business and how they can contribute to the organization’s Cybersecurity.

Are any of these on your business’s Cybersecurity roadmap this year?

At Think Cyber Secure, we uncover the hidden gaps that cause cyber risk, and develop an action plan that will eliminate the stress and frustration resulting from cybersecurity.

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