If you own or operate a business, there are plenty of things you must do to ensure success. You have to make the right hiring decisions; develop a product or service that you can sell; build relationships with clients, employees and partners; and much more. One of the biggest responsibilities that comes with owning or operating a business is ensuring that your business is compliant with any guidelines put in place by regulatory bodies.

Every business needs to make an effort to stay compliant, and a big part of that is making sure your cybersecurity practices are up to standards. With technology rapidly advancing and regulations changing fairly often, you have to stay up-to-date on any changes that should be made going forward. You also need to make an effort to plug any holes in your current cybersecurity plan.

You can do this by asking yourself a few questions and making the necessary adjustments if you answer no to any of the following:

● Is my business protected by a firewall and antivirus software?

● Do I use backup solutions, and do I have a disaster recovery plan in place?

● Has my storage stayed up-to-date with any technological changes?

● Do I have any content or e-mail spam filtering software?

● What data am I encrypting?

Ensuring that your business stays compliant will be extremely important in maintaining client and employee relationships. If a customer’s information gets compromised because your business did not have the necessary cybersecurity in place, they probably won’t come through your doors again. As technology changes and evolves, so do many of the regulations and cybersecurity practices that you should put in place. It can be difficult to become compliant if your business was lacking previously. Luckily, there are a few steps you can take to help ensure that your business becomes and stays compliant with any regulating bodies.

First, you should document all of the consumer data your business holds. If a customer asks what information your business has collected on them, then you should be able to give them an honest answer. You might also be obligated to share this information. By keeping and maintaining this information, you will be able to supply your customers with it if they ever do ask.

It can also help greatly to partner with a managed services provider who manages IT needs, since they will be able to perform routine IT data checks and work to better protect your customers and the private information within your business. MSPs go a long way toward helping all of your potential IT needs, but their usage when it comes to cybersecurity, protection and compliance should not be underestimated. Partnering with an MSP will help get your business on the fast track to becoming cyber-secure.

Another big part of ensuring that your business stays compliant is to introduce cybersecurity training for all of your employees. Did you know that 95% of cyber attacks start with human error? If your team has not bought into a cyber-secure culture or does not know the proper cybersecurity practices, you could be in some trouble. Make sure that cybersecurity training is part of your onboarding process and continue to train your employees throughout their tenure with your business.

Once your employees are aware of the risks of cyber attacks and have bought into a cyber-secure culture, it’s time to upgrade your cybersecurity. One of the best things you can do for your business is to invest in regular software patching. Technology is ever-evolving, and we should make the necessary changes to ensure it continues to cooperate with our network and systems. Put technology in place to cover these holes or partner with an MSP that can help take care of any lapses in your cybersecurity.

Additionally, you should invest in some content-filtering software. There are plenty of toxic websites with nefarious intent that can wreak havoc on your cybersecurity if accessed by an employee on your network. Content filtering allows you to restrict certain websites. It also goes a step further by recognizing patterns in websites that have malicious codes and blocking those websites that might pose a risk.

Cybersecurity and compliance work right alongside each other. If you’re trying to ensure that your business stays compliant, you need to buff up your cybersecurity practices. There are many methods you can take to do this, but if you’re unsure of where to begin, give us a call. We would be glad to help you take the next steps toward creating a cyber-secure business.