Passwords
Use a passphrase or a password manager and turn on multi-factor auth wherever it is offered, especially Microsoft 365. Reusing the same password across sites is how a breach at one site ends up in your bookkeeper's inbox.
FAQ · cyber security
What business owners should know about security.
Most security trouble starts with a rushed click, a weak password, or a laptop in the wrong hands. Eight short primers on the habits that matter.
Security is a team habit, not a product.
Cyber security for small and mid-sized businesses is the set of habits and technical controls that prevent phishing, ransomware, hardware theft, and inbox compromise from becoming operational incidents. Software and monitoring stop a lot, not everything. The other half of staying secure is the habits of the people who answer your email and swipe cards through your point-of-sale. These eight primers cover the topics we walk clients through most often.
Eight things worth five minutes each.
Share these with your team. Most staff will sit through a five-minute primer and skip a fifty-page policy.
What lands in the inbox.
Data
Customer lists, signed contracts, tax records, and HR paperwork live in company-managed systems. Not a personal Dropbox, not an email to a home address. If it is worth keeping, IT needs to back it up.
Phishing
An email pretending to be your bank, your CEO, or Microsoft is the most common path in. If a message pressures you to act fast, move money, or click a login link, slow down and verify by phone. The urgency is the tell.
Vishing
Phishing by phone. A caller claiming to be from the bank, the IRS, or Microsoft asks for a code, remote access, or gift cards. Real institutions do not work that way. Hang up, look up the real number, and call back.
What you plug in or carry out.
Theft
Laptops get stolen from cars, airports, and hotel rooms. Full-disk encryption turns a lost device into a hardware loss, not a data breach. Lock your screen when you walk away, and call us the hour anything goes missing.
USB drives
A USB stick from the parking lot, a trade-show booth, or a vendor's leftover drive can install malware before Windows finishes mounting it. If IT did not hand it to you, do not plug it in. That includes the one the vendor left behind.
Downloads
Free installers, browser extensions, and "utility" tools are a common path into a business network. If a download is not from a vendor you already use, or has not been approved by IT, do not install it. Filters help, but they do not fix a bad click.
Wi-Fi
Open Wi-Fi at the airport, coffee shop, or hotel lobby is a network you do not control. Anyone on it can see unencrypted traffic. Use a VPN, a mobile hotspot, or wait until you are on a trusted network.
READY TO CLOSE THE GAPS?
Eight habits, covered. Now the other half.
Your team can run these primers in an afternoon. Firewall monitoring, endpoint protection, and Microsoft 365 email security need someone watching the alerts. We'll scope both for the business you actually run.
Or call (972) 509-0585 · Mon–Fri 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. CT