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security procedures, such as issue remote ‘locate, lock, and wipe’ commands, or check whether specific devices, networks, and VPNs are company approved. There are risks with MDM, however; for example, some employees may feel hindered, and end up seeking workarounds. An alternative solution, that provides for both employee mobility and productivity via BYOD, as well as stringent security, is secure, single sign-on technology (SSO) with twofactor authentication. This enables IT providers to deploy secure, mobile access and multi-factor authentication for their small business customers as a simple, cloud-based service, that extends usability, security, and compliance across all their mobile devices, plus their traditional Windows and OSX laptops. SMALL STEPS For those small business owners who are not ready to integrate a full IT solution, such as secure single signon, there are still a number of best practices you can put in place to kick start their businesses’ data protection: • Educate your staff via in-person training sessions, and by providing regularly updated resources on the threat landscape. • Always make sure your customer data is stored in an encrypted database. • Require multiple levels of passwords to access any database storing
customer information - and change these passwords frequently. • Regularly run background checks on employees handling customer data. • Make sure to have malware detection software running on both your servers (hosted or not) and workstations and that it, and your operating systems, are regularly patched and updated. • Review and implement the standard network security health check controls. • Make sure that your crisis management or disaster plan (which you should also have) includes a data breach plan. If you don’t have a qualified person on staff to keep up with these defences, it may be time to consider using a professional IT service provider for help. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW With the volume and scope of small business security threats on the rise, SMEs cannot afford to wait, and risk becoming the next breach we read about in the morning papers. Aside from the monetary losses from such a breach, the damage to reputation could be incalculable, severely impacting a business’s credibility, and eroding the hard-won trust of its clients and customers. Contact: www.avg.com
In the UK, data breaches can FRVW VPDOOHU ƬUPV anywhere between £65,000 and £115,000, with the worst hit VXƫHULQJ XS WR VL[ EUHDFKHV SHU \HDU talkbusinessmagazine.co.uk 99