A startup company is at the same risk of a cyber attack as any established organization. More than half of cyber attacks in 2022 went after small businesses and many were attacked more than once. The threat of cybercrime, including online sextortion risks and online blackmail, continues to exist, making it vital that your startup has the proper security measures to protect yourself, your employees, and your business.
Why is Cybersecurity Important for Startups?
Protecting Data
Because a startup company must store a certain amount of data, including finances, customer contact information, and their intellectual property, it’s imperative to protect this data to prevent sextortion attempts that can damage the business. This can cause financial ruin, put a mark on your reputation, and cost you money.
Comply with Regulations
As a business, it’s your responsibility to comply with regulations that go with your industry. This includes protecting data and finances from threats, including sextortion. Failure to comply can result in legal fees and penalties.
Maintain Trust
It’s also vital that you maintain the trust of those whose data you store, including employees and clients. Failure to keep it safe from sextortion and other threats can leave you trying to regain the trust of those in your system, which is very difficult to do.
Avoid Interruptions
Naturally, you want your business to operate effectively without any interruptions. Sextortion can dramatically interfere with this, so it’s important to protect your time and assets by taking proper security measures to prevent data loss and system failures.
Security Practices for Startups
Sextortion can be damaging in many ways, including damaging reputations, the good name of your startup, and the psychological well-being of those targeted. Protecting your startup is a responsible choice that can be done in several ways.
Educate Employees
One of the best ways to prevent becoming the victim of sextortion is to educate your employees. Some may not even be aware of the risk. Establishing a healthy business from the start ensures that all involved can identify potential risks and take appropriate action to keep it from blowing up. You should have a policy, in writing, that dictates how sextortion attacks will be prevented and addressed. There should be a training event in which all are taught the policy and each person knows what their role in prevention is. It’s also important to have a clear plan in case sextortion occurs so everyone knows what to do.
Protect Your Digital Assets
Your digital business practices are at risk of sextortion and other cybercrime, including your cloud storage, software, hardware, apps, mobile devices, and IoT. Enforcing security measures that flag and alert you to possible sextortion attempts goes a long way toward keeping all of your digital assets safe and secure.
Add Cybersecurity Software
Most operating systems come with some degree of security written in, but you can take it up a level by adding software created specifically to deal with cybercrime. Adding additional layers of protection, such as firewalls, anti-spam software, packet sniffers, anti-virus software, and monitoring tools. Each of these can help combat the many ways that hackers get into your system and carry out sextortion attempts, providing protection and peace of mind.
Zero Trust Architecture
This offers protection from the inside. It’s easy to focus on outside threats, but as a startup, you’ve also got to be aware that sometimes threats come from within. While it’s unsettling to think that someone you trust to work for you may target you or your business with sextortion threats, it’s also responsible to be prepared.
A zero-trust architecture refers to software that prevents internal breaches. It works to keep a single breach from having a negative impact throughout the network. It mainly involves requiring all people using the infrastructure to verify their identity each time they access it. The architecture can also place limits on who can get in and what they can do. This includes multi-factor authentication, security passwords, and external validation.
Use Artificial Intelligence
AI is here to stay, so it makes sense to make it work for you. While it’s true that hackers are also using it for sextortion and other cyber crimes, you can combat it with the appropriate use of machine learning. Artificial intelligence can be used for attack point discovery, finding the culprit behind the sextortion attempt. It’s also helpful for detecting vulnerabilities, as well as managing identity and access.
Use Strong Passwords
As a startup, you can protect sensitive data and lower the risk of sextortion by using strong passwords and implementing strict password policies. Complex and unique passwords should be developed for all systems, ideally different ones for each. This ensures that if one password is hacked, other elements of the business are still protected. Long passwords are generally stronger than short ones.
Conduct Regular System Updates
Starting a business is hectic and busy, but it’s imperative that you adhere to all system update requirements. This ensures that the software protects against new threats. Updates are necessary on all security software, including firewalls, antivirus programs, and anti-malware. Up-to-date software is a simple solution for reducing the risk of sextortion.
Back-Up and Encrypt Data
Encrypting data keeps sensitive information from being read in the case that your startup is hacked. That includes employee details, financial data, and customer information. A secure sockets layer (SSL) is also a beneficial tool for encrypting messages between your business and visitors. This prevents hackers from finding personal data and using it for sextortion.
Use Cloud Storage
The cloud makes running a startup so much easier, offering flexibility and scalability for employees. You can use it to back up and store important business data. It’s also a good choice for scanning for sextortion threats. Access controls are also important, as they restrict who can get into your startup’s cloud storage, further protecting what’s there.
Summary
Your startup’s security should be scalable. That means implementing software that expands and evolves to meet your cybersecurity needs as your business grows. You want to protect what already exists, as well as being able to easily add to it when the need arises. A small startup is not an exception to sextortion and putting protection measures in place at the beginning, and allowing for adding on as you get bigger, is absolutely one of the most important steps you can take as a business owner.
