Cybersecurity is a Business Commodity, Not a Luxury

A decade or so ago, IT security was as simple as buying antivirus software for each computer in a business. As long as you kept renewing your antivirus, kept it updated, and ran regular scans, your business would avoid 99 percent of the threats out there.

Over the last several years, things have changed and become much more complicated.

Cybersecurity Risks are Worse Than Ever

The general population doesn’t really think about what’s behind all of the viruses, malware, phishing attacks, ransomware, and other threats. We think of cybercriminals as shady creeps in hoodies or overseas scammers, but in general, that’s where the personification stops.

These days, cybercriminals treat their craft like a business. A phishing attack or a phone scam isn’t likely being performed by some lone wolf who just happened to guess your email or dial a random number. Ransomware and other cyberthreats aren’t just stray shots in the dark.

These tactics are extremely deliberate, honed, and targeted. Sure, not every attempt is going to make it through your defenses—just like any industry, there are going to be top performers mixed in with the amateur hour. It’s important to not get overconfident because you feel like you can outwit these criminals—most anybody can outwit some of them, but not all of them.

The ones you have to watch out for are the ones you won’t catch scamming you. These cybercriminals operate like a business. They have processes and tools at their disposal. They have staff and quotas to meet. They have gotten so good at what they do that it’s fiscally better for them to be cybercriminals than it is to run a normal business. They are efficient and effective and they are making money off of your pain and suffering.

That’s why IT security has changed so much over the last several years. Antivirus and antimalware has greatly improved, but the cybercriminals have adapted around it. While you still need to protect yourself from computer viruses, there is a growing list of threats that antivirus just can’t protect you from.

Until Recently, Cybersecurity WAS a Luxury for Larger Businesses

As a business owner, if you always felt that high-end cybersecurity wasn’t really made for smaller businesses, you’d be absolutely right. That’s because for many years, the solution to stop cyberthreats was to just continuously throw money at it. Large enterprises would hire expensive experts and integrate expensive solutions to play cat-and-mouse with the cybercriminals, and the criminals would then come up with ways around these defenses.

It was a very broken system, and not something that most New England small business owners could keep up with.

It’s also easy to get burnt out by it all!

To a non-technical person, cybersecurity has become this overly complicated set of rules, best practices, and roadblocks that just make it harder to focus on your work. Some of it is absolutely necessary, and it’s critical that everyone as an individual becomes aware of the importance of good cybersecurity hygiene, but modern cybersecurity doesn’t HAVE to be unreachable or insurmountable for a small business today.

Datalyst is Bringing High-End, Affordable Cybersecurity to New England Small Businesses

We feel that cybersecurity is a commodity, not a luxury. Every single organization, no matter how big or small, needs to meet certain standards in order to protect itself, its staff, and its customers.

The cost of a data breach or ransomware attack is far too high to ignore today, and we’ve put together all of the processes, resources, and best practices to help a business protect itself without tripping over roadblocks designed to keep it safe.

It’s not about throwing money at the problem, and it’s not about restricting you from operating normally, it’s about being effective and proactive.

We’ve made investments in our own personal security stack, gaining tools and resources that would normally be reserved for much larger companies. We’ve combined this with years of IT experience and process-building, allowing us to go into a new network, audit and evaluate it, and apply our standards in a way that minimizes disruption and maximizes protection.

It’s efficient, it’s effective, and it’s exactly what big corporations have been throwing stacks of money at for years, but it’s all designed to work for smaller organizations like yours.

It can include compliance, so if your business needs to meet certain industry-level compliance standards like HIPAA, SOC, or PCI, we can get you there. If your insurance company needs to see you meet certain guidelines, we can get you there and provide the reports.

Cybersecurity can’t be seen as a luxury anymore, and our entire mission has been to help small businesses grow and excel through the use of technology—we want to ensure that your business doesn’t suffer because of threats in the same way.

Let’s talk about how we can prevent cybersecurity threats, harden your network, help you meet compliance standards, and allow your business to operate smoothly while minimizing risk. Give us a call at (774) 213-9701 to start the conversation.