What can possibly go wrong - Cybersecurity for small businesses

Guest blog post by Trevor Wood, Network Midlands Ltd

In this blog post, we'll look at how to increase the security of your computer systems and your chances of recovery should you be hacked.

There are six easy steps to achieve this.

• Identify
• Protect
• Detect
• Respond
• Recover
• Review, repeat and refine

Step 1: Identify

Perform audits of equipment, software and your website. Copy any installation disks and downloaded software to external media and store offsite. Implement a backup regime for your computers and websites.

Step 2: Protect

Make sure you have anti-virus, anti-malware, and firewall software on all computers, laptops, tablets, and (where possible) phones. Only install software from trusted sources. Apply all software patches ASAP. If you can, encrypt disk drives. Implement the “Principle of Least Privilege” - this is an essential requirement if you are going for Cyber Essentials accreditation.

Protect your networks. Routers should have hardware firewalls. Change the router password to something secure. Secure your Wi-Fi network, turn off WPS, change passwords, use the best encryption possible. Install an Intruder Detection System.

Protect your mobile devices. Don’t use free/open Wi-Fi or use a VPN. Lock devices with Multi-Factor Authentication. Consider using tracking software.

Protect your website: Make sure the server is secure. Use a web application firewall. Use MFA for admin users. Apply patches.

Use unique passwords for everything. Use long random character strings. Use a secure password manager to remember them (not Post It notes!)

Step 3: Detect

Enable firewall alerts. Check logs regularly. Use haveibeenpwned.com to see if your username or password has been compromised.

Step 4: Respond

Depending upon the severity of the attack, you might take your website offline or disconnect your systems from the Internet. You may have to report the incident to the police and/or the ICO. You may have to deal with adverse publicity.

Step 5: Recover

Replace hardware and/or software. This was all listed in step 1. Perform recovery from your backup.

Step 6: Review, repeat, and refine

What parts of the earlier steps failed? Could anything be improved? Repeat the identify step (after all your IT systems change over time).

And finally, what everyone forgets

Do your backups work? Can you recover your last backup? Does the reporting work? And for that extra level of security, get a penetration test performed on your network, Wi-Fi and website.

Unfortunately, we can’t go into much detail in such a short blog, but Trevor does run a half-day seminar on the subject if you want to know more. More information can be found here, or you could have a look at Trevor's cybersecurity blog posts here.