The new year means new opportunities, but it also means new threats to your business. Cybercriminals have the same new year's resolution as they did last year: take more money and damage more systems of small businesses just like yours.
That's why your small business needs to make some cybersecurity resolutions of its own to ensure that you can survive and thrive in 2025. Here are six tips for your small business to fortify your cyber defenses and stay protected from the slew of new attacks in the coming year.
Improve password strength with a password manager
Fortunately for cybercriminals, weak passwords will still be a major security vulnerability for small businesses in 2025, making them easy targets for cybercriminals. By guessing or just brute forcing your employees' simple and obvious passwords, they can gain access to your data and finances to wreak havoc.
Fortunately for you, however, password management software is highly affordable and available, and make it easy for even the laziest of employees to have ironclad passwords. These programs automatically generate strong, nigh uncrackable passwords for each of your logins and remembers them for you. This way, you can secure all of your many accounts without harming availability.
Implement multifactor authentication (MFA)
In addition to your strong passwords, your business should activate MFA for every account that supports it. This feature requires an additional login credential to gain access to the program, such as:
- Generated code from an authenticator app
- One-time passcode delivered via email
- Fingerprint or face scan
- RF fob
With MFA, even if a cybercriminal acquires your password, they will lack the second key component required to gain access to your systems.
Set a maintenance, patch, and upgrade schedule and stick to it
Cybercriminals are always poking around in the code of popular apps and hardware to find vulnerabilities they can exploit. The good news is that the manufacturers and developers of these technologies release patches to fix vulnerabilities not long after they are discovered.
But if you don't take the time to ensure all of your systems are up to date with the latest protections, you can't benefit from these patches. Make sure you regularly check for and install security updates to ensure you don't fall prey to a preventable cyberattack.
Remove unused devices and software
As mentioned above, out-of-date software and hardware is a threat, but a fixable one with the right updates. However, if you have IT assets connected to your network that are no longer being utilized or are severely underused, they can be even more dangerous. Not only are they out of date, but no one is paying attention to them, making them the perfect vectors of attack for cybercriminals.
At the very least, conduct a yearly inventory of your IT infrastructure to identify old and dangerous technologies that must be removed. With a regular audit of your IT, you may even end up saving some money!
Commit to regular employee training
In terms of cybersecurity, your employees are your weakest link, but also your strongest and most cost-effective defense. If your workforce knows how to spot and stay vigilant against phishing scams, intrusion attempts, malware infections, and the newest threats on the internet, you can close off the primary cause of cyberattacks: human error.
However, your employees need to be taught this knowledge in the first place, and they need regular refresher courses to stay current on the latest threats and stay sharp. That's why you need to commit to employee security training at least a couple times per year.
Be selective with your trust
There are now more "free offers," random QR codes, new apps, and other seemingly innocuous things that want to connect to or access your network and devices than ever before. All of these can be avenues for cybercriminals to attack your small business and steal your money or destroy your hard-earned growth.
You shouldn't trust any of these allegedly harmless technologies, but you should find a cybersecurity partner that you can trust with your small business. It gets harder and harder to protect yourself each new year with the way technology is developing, so contact outsourceIT for expert, trustworthy cybersecurity consulting.
Our experts can both lend you our expertise and knowledge as well as go hands-on with your cybersecurity tools to ensure your small business stays secure in 2025 without breaking your budget.
