5 Business Cybersecurity Habits Not to Be Underestimated

The biggest threat to businesses? Have weak or almost no cybersecurity.

According to the Cyberthreat Defense Report,the problems often depend on a lack of awareness such as: the absence of ad hoc training of collaborators and misinformation.

Based on this last problem, we have identified 5 myths to dispel in companies to improve the level of cybersecurity.

1. Cybersecurity is not the responsibility of employees

Cybersecurity is still seen as a problem of the IT team, when in fact it is not.

All staff are responsible for ensuring the safety of their business.

If you do not pay special attention to clicking on the links you find in emails or downloading software, in fact, you can cause damage and loss sometimes irreversible.

2. Hackers Don't Target Small Businesses

This belief is particularly widespread due to reports that hackers can extort higher sums of money from big corporations.

To refute this myth is the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) which reports that small businesses in the UK are targeted by more than 10,000 cyber attacks a day.

The same report highlights weak and widespread security procedures in small businesses, including the lack of formal password policies, failure to install updates, and failure to use security software.

While the financial gain from targeting businesses is more profitable, the stakes are higher for small businesses.

A cyberattack could destroy a small business and force it to close, which is why a small business in the UK. is successfully hacked every 19 seconds.

In addition, small businesses that have a limited cybersecurity budget and are therefore more easily attacked.

3. Password security

The first is that adding capital letters, numbers, or special characters to your password of a word will make it indecipherable.

However, the true measure of password security is length.

A software can crack short passwords, no matter how "complex", within a few days.

That's why the longer a password is, the longer it takes to decrypt it.

But determine a strong password and it's not the only thing to do.

The violation of a service and the consequent obtaining of personal passwords, leads to a vulnerability.

For this there are two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

These methods require setting up an additional verification step, thus constituting an obstacle for hackers.

4. All you need is a basic antivirus to protect your businesses' business

Unfortunately, antiviruses such as McAfee or Avast are no longer enough to protect companies.

The emergence of ransomware and other more elaborate cyber attacks have led to new resources to protect your data.

Your security solutions should cover endpoints, firewalls, network connections, email, and more.

In addition, backup and disaster recovery solutions are recommended to mitigate any incidents.

5. The only threat comes from hackers

Although hackers pose a huge threat to businesses, it is important not to underestimate malicious actors or incidents by staff.

One of the episodes that has made the rounds of the news around the world is related to the loss of a USB stick containing sensitive data by a member of heathrow airport staff.

Fortunately, those who found it immediately returned it – but the company was still fined £120,000 for "serious" deficiencies in data protection.

In everyday business life, it's not hard to imagine accidentally sending an email containing sensitive data outside the company or clicking on a phishing link by mistake.

Small tricks for computer security

Blocking access to core systems, restricting access to fewer employees can be a good way to protect companies from within.

Setting up emails to prevent certain attachments from being shared outside of your company can also increase IT security and prevent sensitive data from spreading.

To learn more about IT security read Cybersecurity: Why It Matters