Small businesses are especially vulnerable to cybercrime these days, says Accounting Today. While taking measures to secure office networks can help, read on to learn what else can be done to stay on top of an increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape.
Cyber Florida, a Florida-state-funded cybersecurity development organization, has released a free cybersecurity guide for small and mid-size businesses. “Cyber Defense for SMBs” comes at a time when security should be top of mind for businesses and accounting firms, especially as the understanding that staff training is key becomes clearer.
The beginner’s guide introduces readers to the fundamentals of cybersecurity for business to help SMBs be better prepared to respond to, and recover from, cyberattacks. “Cyber Defense for SMBs” is available as a free digital download at https://www.cyberflorida.org/SMB.
The 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report stated that 58 percent of data-breach victims in 2017 were categorized as small businesses.
“Small businesses are targeted by cybercriminals precisely because they are small,” stated Cyber Florida Director Sri Sridharan. “Criminals know these businesses likely lack the financial resources necessary to employ state-of-the-art cyber defenses. Our goals with this guide are to help Florida’s small businesses avoid becoming victims of this troubling trend and if they are targeted, to help them be better prepared to recover and respond appropriately.”
“Cyber Defense for SMBs” was developed with input from experts in academia, private industry, government and the military, and offers guidance to help SMBs identify the most cost-effective cybersecurity best practices for their businesses. It also reviews the common threats SMBs are likely to encounter and industry-standard best practices for cyberattack prevention and mitigation, crisis management and post-incident response.
Cyber Florida has teamed up with the National Cyber Security Alliance to offer free workshops throughout Florida that will provide SMB leaders with hands-on guidance. Workshops are planned for Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville and Tallahassee during the first quarter of 2019. For more details and to register for a workshop, visit https://www.cyberflorida.org/SMB.
Accompanying this initiative is a web page of resources, www.cyberflorida.org/SMB, that offers planning and assessment worksheets and links to other organizations and resources. Cyber Florida aims to update the page often to keep up with how quickly the field is changing.
This article was written by Ranica Arrowsmith from Accounting Today and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.
