Article Summary
- Cyberattacks are a growing threat, with an alarming number of small businesses experiencing security breaches.
- Outdated hardware, weak passwords, infrequent IT audits, and a lack of regular backups increase the vulnerability of businesses.
- Managed services providers like Mirazon can help businesses mitigate IT risks by enforcing cybersecurity measures and disaster recovery planning.
Running a small business requires numerous skills. You’re likely excellent at providing customer service, managing employees, and standing out within your industry. Yet when it comes to IT management, many business owners aren’t sure where they stand. That’s why an IT assessment can be so valuable; it helps you find vulnerabilities before they become serious problems.
We get plenty of calls from people who share your concerns as an IT provider of managed services in Louisville, Kentucky. Learning the most common IT mistakes people make will help you reduce your risk this summer and protect your brand’s reputation.
Protecting Your Reputation Starts Here
Cyberattacks are becoming more common and sophisticated. Though you might not see daily headlines about them, 39% of small businesses experienced hacks in their data and general security in 2024. When that happens, those business owners have to rebuild their brand reputation and restore their customers’ trust.
Criminals can land extensive payoffs from big corporations, but they’re also aware of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in small businesses. In many cases, attackers don’t just steal data, they threaten to leak sensitive client information unless a ransom is paid.
If customers discover that their sensitive data was part of a leak, they’ll lose trust in the business at the center of the leak and find another one for long-term services. Trust is difficult to rebuild, especially if your brand loses most of its customers and struggles to regain that lost revenue.
When people hear that your business has experienced one or more cyberattacks, your brand reputation falls apart. They may not want to trust you with their data again. You’ll shield your reputation from losing valuable customer trust and revenue by getting ahead of IT problems with proactive cybersecurity measures.
Quick Check: When Was the Last Time You Reviewed Your IT Setup From End to End?
- This week
- This month
- Sometime last year
- …We’ve never done that
Don’t worry if you selected number four. People often forget to review their IT setups when they aren’t in the IT industry. We help people prevent cyber attacks by working with business owners to stop lapses in software updates and security patches.
1. Infrequent Attention On Backups
Outdated software can be a vulnerability for small and mid-sized businesses too. If you haven’t replaced your workplace computers in years, they may not be compatible with recent software updates that patch known issues. In 2023, 60% of data breaches happened on old systems, likely related to inaccessible updates.
Many people assume weekly backups are an industry standard, but that’s one of the top IT security mistakes we see. We highly recommend at minimum daily backups, depending on how your business operates, of everything on your network. If your network goes down, you’ll reduce potential data loss and ensure you have everything you need for seamless operations.
What kind of backup should you do? We encourage our clients to use a hybrid backup system with a cloud component. Saving copies to the cloud ensures protection of your data in the event of a fire, storm, or other disaster.. You’ll sleep better at night when you know your IT is secure.
Don’t assume that if you have a software-as-a-service (SaaS) app like Outlook, Salesforce, or Slack, it doesn’t need backups. Accidental or malicious deletions could occur, and these SaaS providers don’t guarantee any sort of data retention for you.
Testing backups is a commonly overlooked step. Regularly test the restore functionality to verify that your backup worked. We can always assist, so you know how to secure your IT infrastructure before it’s too late.
Ask Yourself: If Your System Crashed Right Now, How Much Data Would You Lose?
- Nothing — daily backups are in place
- A few days’ worth
- Probably everything
If you hesitate to choose anything other than daily backups, you’re not alone. Many businesses don’t realize how much they stand to lose until it’s too late. We help companies implement reliable backup systems and test them regularly, so you’re never caught off guard when disaster strikes.
2. Failure to Create and Test a Disaster Recovery Plan
Thinking about a ransomware attack on your server today is scary, but it shouldn’t be ignored. If your response is, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” your business needs a new strategy.
We advise business owners to create Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) first. The practice should be at the top of your IT support checklist. How quickly do you need to be back online, and what’s the priority data to retrieve first?
Ransomware still accounts for 28% of all malware cases, making it one of the most persistent threats businesses face. Simulating a disaster scenario through tabletop exercises, simulations, or parallel testing builds confidence in recovery plans. Create a playbook outlining every potential response. IT teams can also conduct a full-scale test of your entire infrastructure. We can determine your best options if you don’t know which to choose for your business.
Scenario Simulation: How Would Your Team Respond if Your Primary Server Went Down Right Now?
- We have written and tested a plan
- We kind of know what to do
- We’d probably panic
In need of a plan? Now is the perfect time to prepare. We help businesses build and test disaster recovery plans before a real crisis hits so they can respond with confidence, not panic.
3. Not Taking Passwords and MFA Seriously
Many cybercriminals breach accounts because people reuse passwords or create easily guessable credentials. Managed IT teams recommend multifactor authentication as the minimum for employee-use standards to protect you in case your password is compromised. It’s also important to create a unique and more complex password or passphrase that a computer program can’t crack. We know it’s harder to remember passwords that are a jumble of letters, numbers, and special characters, but isn’t reducing your risk of a breach worth the effort?
Opening a phishing email or reusing a password can open doors to cybercriminals. If those examples sound familiar, your business is at risk for a cyber attack. Small companies that neglect internal IT audits experience these things all the time.
People sometimes ask us if they should use a password manager to handle more complicated credentials. We’ll give you two enthusiastic thumbs up if you choose a platform with high reviews, robust security measures, and cloud storage. They often come with free tools to check for password leaks. Using repeated passwords is all too common; yet another reason why SMBs shouldn’t ignore IT vulnerabilities.
Security Check: How Many People in Your Company Still Don’t Use MFA?
- Zero — everyone’s locked down
- A few — we’re working on it
- Most of us
If you’re still working toward a full MFA adoption, now’s the time to make it a priority. Even one unprotected account can be an open door for attackers. We help businesses create and implement secure access policies that will scale with your teams without slowing you down.
4. Delayed Updates Invite Vulnerabilities
We’ve all seen a system update notification pop up at the worst times. You may prefer to procrastinate, but that habit increases your risk. Updates include operating system and software patches that prevent cybercriminals from exploiting vulnerabilities to steal your data. Outdated apps can also become backdoors into your system.
You can inventory all third-party apps your business uses and automate updates without disrupting workflows. We offer regular and proactive patching and updating to enact needed security updates while your team tackles their daily responsibilities.
We also encourage clients to implement a regular patching and update schedule. Software companies frequently release security updates to fix newly discovered vulnerabilities, and staying on top of these updates is one of the easiest ways to protect your systems. If you have an in-house or outsourced IT team tracking those updates, you’ll proactively protect your business with the biggest security fixes of the month.
Action Step: Create a list of all third-party apps your business uses. Are they set to auto-update?
5. Access is Open to Everyone
Administrator accounts often have multiple users. If you own a larger business, it’s almost impossible to avoid. We know how crucial that is, but there are also much bigger risks involved. Shared logins and multiple admins grant widespread access to sensitive data, increasing the chances of human error breaches. Try running an access permissions audit on one system. Your findings may surprise you.
You’ll protect your business much more effectively with the principle of least privilege — giving people strict access according to their responsibilities. There are policies, procedures and tools available to help grant and remove admin right more securely. These solutions can help you to govern user behavior and help prevent elevated accounts from being compromised, which could otherwise lead to disastrous consequences.
Similarly, you should evaluate your offboarding processes. Does someone restrict access for every ex-employee? We can provide an MSP IT audit checklist to ensure that only currently employed team members have active accounts and that only the appropriate users have elevated privileges.
Managed services providers, like our experts at Mirazon, handle these tasks for business owners every day. A proactive support system is only one of six crucial factors that make MSPs worth your time. We know outsourcing IT support is a massive decision, so we’re here to fix common IT mistakes and prevent them from happening again.
Spot the Risk: How Many User Accounts Still Belong to Former Employees?
- None — offboarding is airtight
- A couple
- Honestly, no idea
If you’re unsure who still has access — and who has admin privileges to boot — it’s time for a cleanup. Unused accounts and shared credentials can be low-hanging fruit for attackers. Tightening your access controls and streamlining offboarding will make sure that only the right people have the right permissions.
Try This: Run an access permissions audit on one system. Were there surprises?
Your Louisville Business May Be at Risk if These Questions Made You Pause
We’ve identified and resolved every common IT mistake small businesses make. It’s likely time to partner with an IT backup provider if you and your team do three or more of these things. Call Mirazon today to explore our IT services, make your business safer, and stop worrying about tech problems.