Startups are mushrooming at an unprecedented rate, especially in the technology industry. Tech businesses, big or small, are developing SaaS, MaaS, or PaaS products and catering to a global audience daily. In such a scenario, it is inevitable for cybercriminals to target this emerging market and cause these businesses losses in the tens of thousands of dollars. That is why it is imperative today that startup security is taken care of on a priority basis and risk assessments are performed regularly to ensure that the systems are secure.
Moving from ideas to production is a significant step toward building a sustainable startup. Another considerable obstacle that has several unforeseen difficulties is shifting from manufacturing to profitability. Having to demonstrate an organization’s security posture is one criterion that might completely halt startup sales. A number of factors contribute to hackers favoring startups, in addition to the fact that the majority of them quickly and primarily online attract clients. Startups frequently prioritize customer acquisition and business expansion over data protection, so they have a wealth of online customer information.
Smaller businesses are consequently less prepared to defend themselves against cyberattacks, mainly as attackers grow more skilled. Additionally, they probably have fewer resources set up to combat cyberattacks. These startups depend on their cloud service providers for their security requirements because they were created in the cloud.
As an emerging compliance and cybersecurity leader, we at Akitra collaborate closely with many startups to assist in streamlining ongoing security operations. By doing this, we acknowledge that not all companies have the same resources, plan similarly, or structure their duties similarly. This is why we decided to curate this informative article to help businesses safeguard and grow their organization.
This blog will discuss how remote work has made the security process more dynamic and what you should do to ensure the best security for your small business or enterprise.
Let’s get started.
How Remote Work Has Transformed the Idea of Security for Startups
The workplace has changed as a result of the pandemic. Because more people are working remotely from their devices, there are more cyber threats. Due to the rise in popularity of remote jobs, the average cost of a data breach has climbed by $137,000 since 2010.
Businesses that are using digital channels now because of the epidemic will probably continue to do so in the future—which is why ensuring security is a challenge that needs to be addressed vigilantly.
Work-from-Home Cybersecurity
Employee remote access to company data may expose the company to cybersecurity risks that could be detrimental to the business. Before the pandemic, the IT Security team was in charge of the hub-and-spoke office where most people worked. All instant messages, emails, video meetings, and document management were sent through a single security point within the organization.
Office Personnel Must Understand Security Vulnerabilities
Those who are still based in an offline workplace but want to grow their network also have a lot of obligations. You are more vulnerable to cyberattacks when a network is not adequately secured. Protecting your business and sensitive information from fraud is not easy, but it is crucial.
How to Protect Your Startup from Cyber Threats?
Shared below are 8 ways to best protect your startup from cybersecurity threats:
1. Discover all Assets Linked to Your Network
The first step for IT teams should be to audit all the devices connected to their network resources. The practice of BYOD (bring your own device) is spreading as more employees work remotely or while on the go. It is crucial to have total visibility of all endpoint devices connected to company apps and data before taking further action. After all, you cannot secure something that you are unaware of.
2. Device Security for End-Users
Once endpoints have been located and analyzed, IT professionals must comprehend how to leverage existing security technologies to defend them. It is still common practice to employ antivirus software that compares signatures to identify existing risks and uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify new threats. Endpoint detection and response, a development in the technology, offers console alerting, reporting, security incident response, enhanced coverage, and third-party integration. This defense mechanism is required for managing end-user devices.
3. Implement and Maintain the Latest Operating Systems and Security Software to Reinforce Protection
Installing the most recent security software on all your devices is necessary to block and remove malware from your endpoints. Along with the operating systems, apps, and security software your business utilizes, they often spend a sizable sum of money fixing software flaws. However, those patches and upgrades only function if you frequently update your endpoints.
4. Enable User Identity for Access
The zero-trust philosophy of “never trust, always verify” is essential to managing the risk surface and ensuring that the appropriate users have access to the relevant data under the right circumstances. Identity has evolved into a new perimeter. By centrally managing policies, these factors are continuously compared to common device setups, access requests, temporary privilege escalations, and removal of access rights and privileges. Most of these duties can be completed automatically with a well-designed identity and access management framework, saving valuable human intervention for the unusual situations that call for it.
5. Implement 2FA
Two-factor authentication is one of the most affordable and under-utilized cybersecurity solutions. All critical papers, financial information, banking, and other services should require two-factor authentication. All crucial business accounts should require two-factor authentication to reduce the risk of a hack spreading throughout the company.
Two-factor authentication needs to be made mandatory on all user assets. Use a mobile app like Google Authenticator wherever possible to replace SMS authentication. SIM switching and other methods can completely circumvent SMS 2FA. Although authenticator software might not be able to stop a determined attacker, it might lower the likelihood that your company will be attacked frequently.
6. Determine Required Compliance Mandates
Cybersecurity compliance ensures a set of risk-based procedures to protect the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of data stored, processed, or transferred. Depending on your industry or the entities you work with, various state, local, national, and sector-specific cyber security regulations may apply to you. Depending on the industry, different standards may overlap, confusing businesses that employ a checklist-based strategy and adding unnecessary work.
Your must layer your compliance requirements. For instance, a pharmacy must adhere to PCI DSS, or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of rules created to ensure that all companies that process, store, or transfer credit card data do so securely manner. Pharmacies also require HIPAA because they handle PHI (protected health information). There may also be federal and state data privacy rules that apply to this drugstore. For information on the duties that apply to your particular organization, speak with a lawyer or other compliance specialist.
7. Make Sure to Encrypt Your Data
Resting Data: The primary defenses in this comparatively secure condition are firewalls and antivirus software. Organizations will require extra layers of defense if the network is compromised to keep unauthorized individuals from accessing critical data. One of the best ways to secure data at rest is to encrypt hard drives. The possibility of thieves obtaining enough information to perpetrate fraud or other crimes can be decreased by storing individual data elements in separate locations.
Data in use: Data in use is more vulnerable than data at rest since it must be available to people who require it. Of course, the likelihood that the data will someday end up in the wrong hands increases the more individuals and gadgets have access to it. To prevent users from hiding behind stolen identities, it is necessary to provide authentication and strictly limit access to data.
Data in motion: When data is in motion, it is most susceptible, and securing it calls for specialized skills. The best method to guarantee that messages and attachments remain private is to choose an encryption platform that combines well with your current workflows and systems.
8. Create a Highly Advanced SOC Setup that Performs Continuous Monitoring, Accurate Threat Detection, and a Swift, Organized Response
Continuous monitoring is essential for quickly identifying and thwarting threats that manage to get past proactive security measures. To contain, remediate, and recover from incidents before material damage occurs, it’s essential that you proactively monitor and hunt for threats while also utilizing intelligent analytics that can automatically detect threat activity, prioritize alerts, run root cause analysis, and orchestrate response processes.
Bonus: You must also be protecting your hybrid cloud. Multi-cloud and hybrid clouds can boost your company’s growth, competitiveness, and operational transformation. However, business security must be modernized and rebuilt to benefit from the hybrid cloud with a zero-trust approach at its core. Context, cooperation, and visibility are all combined by zero-trust policies and technology. And those are just what you require to safeguard your organizational change and progress.
Compliance and Cybersecurity for Startups with Akitra!
Security breaches are expensive. Data discovery, data classification, and data protection policies can be used to find and adequately protect sensitive data belonging to your organization. Building trust is a critical competitive differentiator when courting new SaaS enterprises in the age of data breaches and compromised privacy. Customers and partners seek reassurance that the businesses they do business with are taking all reasonable precautions to prevent the leakage of sensitive information and putting them in danger. Certification of compliance meets this demand.
Akitra offers an industry-leading, AI-powered Compliance Automation and Cybersecurity platform for SaaS companies. On the one hand, Andromeda Compliance uses automated evidence collection and continuous monitoring, together with a full suite of customizable policies and controls as a compliance foundation to help customers become certified for regulatory frameworks like SOC 1, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, NIST CSF, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, CCPA, CMMC, and more such as CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark, etc. In addition, companies can use Akitra’s Risk Management product for overall risk management for your company, Trust Center, and AI-based Automated Questionnaire Response product to streamline and expedite security questionnaire response processes, delivering huge cost savings. Our compliance and security experts will provide customized guidance to navigate the end-to-end compliance process confidently.
On the other hand, Andromeda cybersecurity provides quad-layer protection against ransomware and other threats. We ensure that you find all IT and IoT assets (wherever they are located) and determine the best type of device. Operating system, software version, risk level, etc. you should use for your organization and obtain asset detail information from your current systems, including directory services, wireless LAN controllers, SNMP network management tools, and AWS (to increase the precision and level of detail in cataloging both physical and digital assets).
The benefits of our solution include enormous savings in time, human resources, and money — including discounted audit fees with our audit firm partners. Customers achieve compliance certification fast and cost-effectively, stay continuously compliant as they grow, and can become certified under additional frameworks using a single compliance automation platform.
Build customer trust. Choose Akitra TODAY!
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