The 6 Things Small Businesses Need To Know About Security

May 7 is World Password Day, and it serves as a reminder for many entrepreneurs and small business owners to prioritize—or reprioritize—cybersecurity and other protections.

Entrepreneurs and SMBs can do a lot to build strong shields and mitigate the risk of breaches, in addition to minimizing the damage if a breach occurs. To help your company develop a stronger cybersecurity posture, six security professionals provided some of their most useful advice—and you can bet it’s about more than passwords:

1. You’re not too small to be targeted: Erik Knight, founder and CEO of SimpleWAN

Many entrepreneurs, startup founders, and small business owners might think of themselves as minnows compared to Fortune 500 whales. They assume they’re too small to attract the attention of hackers and cyber attackers. But that’s not how bad actors see it.

“Don’t think you are too small to be affected,” says Erik Knight, the founder and CEO of WimpleWAN. “Every place you have an employee or office is a potential entry point. Take it seriously; if you have something worth taking, a hacker will try to take it.”

Knight says small businesses are easier targets because they often fail to perform security audits, put in the resources to protect themselves, or even carry the right insurance coverage. Hackers see small businesses as easy cases to crack.

2. Think of security as a business problem: Vats Srivatsan, president and COO of ColorTokens

Vats Srivatsan, the president and chief operating officer of ColorTokens, warns against thinking of security as a nice-to-have. Security is something that requires 100% investment and effort, not something that can be approached halfway. The truth is that the effects of an attack can be disastrous to any company’s bottom line.

Cybersecurity attacks can result in monetary loss, stolen IP, and downtime. “If a small business were to have a data breach, it could create a lack of trust among customers and employees, causing them to switch to a more prominent brand name they think can do a better job protecting them,” Srivatsan says. A recent survey showed that 37% of small businesses have lost customers and 17% have lost revenue due to…