A cornucopia of possibilities has opened up for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), in today’s dynamic and challenging business environment, making them key contributors to the economy. In order to make the most of these opportunities, there is a compelling need for SMBs to engage in proactive analysis to understand what emerging technology solutions in the market have to offer.

It is interesting to note that the majority of small businesses are just as susceptible to information risks as large organizations. The Symantec2010 Global SMB Information Protection Survey**, reveals that 67 percent of Indian SMBs are most concerned about data loss and almost 80 per cent of small businesses have ‘medium’ to ‘high’ sensitivity to risk. They hold sensitive information, but at the same time have little or no ability to track and audit the way information is created, accessed, modified or deleted, leaving them exposed to significant risk and breaches.

While  budgets continue to be a major barrier, small businesses can save significant amounts of money and energy by simply taking a fresh look at the way they approach information protection.  Cost effective and simple solutions will help the SMBs minimize on costs and also enable them to optimally use their existing data storage capacity by managing data more efficiently.

While there are many ways the SMB can protect their information, we have the following recommended 5 tips that can go a long way in enabling them to build  a culture of information protection. They can follow them to protect their endpoints and messaging as well as systems and data:

1. The front door is locked – what about the company information?
We all make sure our doors are locked when we step out of our homes  to safeguard our valuable assets. This applies to the world of business too. In today’s business context, all confidential and critical company information is stored digitally. One breach can be too many.

Hence, SMBs must implement an integrated security and backup solution to ensure proprietary information is safe – especially bank, customer, employee and credit card information. One data breach could mean financial ruin for an SMB, which can easily be prevented by implementing a comprehensive suite that secures and protects information across levels

2. Have a mobile workforce? Secure your endpoints
It’s the norm today to have a mobile workforce as it increases the efficiency of the business. Instead of solely focusing on devices, such as laptops, mobile phones, SMBs need to take a step back and look at where their information is being stored and protect those areas accordingly. In addition to encryption and security updates, it is important to enforce password management for managers and employees. Maintaining strong passwords will help protect the data stored on a laptop or a PDA if a device is lost or hacked.

3. Oh no!  The office is flooded or there is some natural calamity– is your information backed up?
In case of a disaster, outbreak or system failure - whether it be a flood, volcano,storms power outage or earthquake—a backup and recovery solution is a must. Most SMBs operate on a constant basis, and one outage could mean customer dissatisfaction and ruin for the business and loss of credibility. Not only can disasters be detrimental, but a simple hard drive failure for a key employee can feel (and act like) a disaster.

4. Why waste your time  with “junk” email?
Mail and Web security threats are a nuisance for SMBs. Not only can wading through unwanted mail be time consuming, deleting unwanted emails, especially those that are malicious in nature, takes up valuable time.  A good mail and Web security solution can help mitigate the nuisance of spam and email threats so SMBs spend more time on their day-to-day business activities. Spammers and phishers will use everything from current events to social engineering tactics to get users to click on their malicious emails. SMBs must educate their employees so they are not duped by the lures dropped by these cyber-criminals.

5. Educate Employees
It is important to keep employees educated on the latest threats, and what they can do individually to combat them.  Employees that know what they can click on and what they should stay away from is an important step. It is also important to change passwords regularly and never share them with anyone..
While these tips are the first steps towards comprehensive protection, it’s essential to be constantly updated and understand what your needs and threat level is before going ahead with a information protection strategy that is RIGHT FOR YOU.

** India findings 

* The author is the Head of Channel and Alliances, Symantec.
* The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of SME Times.