Small business security in 5 minutes, day 1: know thy stuff
The short answer
You can’t protect what you don’t know you have. Spend five minutes writing down every digital platform your business uses: web host, business apps, cloud accounts and devices. Then ask your leadership team to do the same and compare lists.
To get right to it skip the first paragraph…
This is the start of a simple mission to reveal, in plain language, the actions you can take to protect your business and possibly create a CyberStrategy. Your business represents much more than a financial investment and you have poured your time and energy into bringing it to life. Your business faces many risks and due to recent changes such as the rise of cyber insurance, introduction of crypto currency and the fact that criminals can safely operate in certain countries cyber crime is now one of the risks we all must grapple with as a business reality.
To protect your business I ask you to commit 5 minutes per day. My promise is to deliver readable content, that delivers, generally, free to implement security hygiene. When a recommendation requires technical expertise to implement I’ll indicate that this step has a cost associated 💰. Reach out to a security or IT expert you trust to help you through these steps. Feel free to connect with me, if I can’t help I can point you to a person that can. Enough intro…read on for Day 1.
Your first step to protecting your assets, and developing a small business security plan, is to know them. Take 5 minutes to think about every digital platform you have access to or own…keep it high level but write them down. Think about:
- Web Host (GoDaddy etc.)
- Business Applications (Email, CRM, Scheduling Software, Online Banking…anything you log into)
- Cloud Accounts (AWS, GCP, Azure)
- Infrastructure, On-Prem or Hosted (Office network + Devices, Plant Network + Devices, personal and employee home networks + Devices, Mobile Devices)
Email your leadership team, business partners, or other stakeholders and prompt them to create their own lists so you can compare notes to create a final list.
That’s it…First day done. Know Thy Stuff… Be sure to come back for Day Two / Part Two
